Trump withdraws troops Turkey/Syrian border, Republicans mad

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President Donald Trump has threatened to destroy Turkey's economy if Turkey goes "off limits" after his surprise decision to pull US forces out of north-eastern Syria.

In a series of angry tweets, Mr Trump defended the move that could open the way for Turkey to launch an attack on Kurdish fighters across the border.

The withdrawal was heavily criticised even by Mr Trump's Republican allies.

Kurdish forces were key US allies in defeating the Islamic State in Syria.

The US has some 1,000 troops across Syria and about two dozen had been pulled out from the border area, according to a senior state department official.

The withdrawal was described by the main Kurdish-led group as a "stab in the back", and critics say it could facilitate an IS resurgence and leave Kurdish forces at risk of being attacked by Turkey, which regards them as terrorists.

But Mr Trump warned Turkey not to take advantage of his decision - which goes against the advice of senior officials in the Pentagon and state department - saying he could "destroy and obliterate" its economy.

Last year, the US raised tariffs on some Turkish products and imposed sanctions on top officials as relations between the two Nato countries worsened over a number of issues.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his aim is to combat Kurdish fighters in the border area and set up a "safe zone" for up to two million of the more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey.

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said "the Department of Defense made clear to Turkey - as did the president - that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in Northern Syria".

Earlier, Mr Trump said it was time "to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal" and that "Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out".

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, was among those who criticised the decision. He said a "precipitous withdrawal of US forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran and the Assad regime".

In a statement, Mr McConnell also said a majority in the Senate voted in January for an amendment expressing concern about the threat posed by Islamist militant groups in Syria and support for a continued military presence, and that "the conditions that produced that bipartisan vote still exist today".

Lindsey Graham, another Republican senator and a close ally of the president, called the move a "disaster in the making", and said he would introduce a Senate resolution opposing the decision and calling for it to be reversed.

In other reaction:

Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN, said the Kurds "were instrumental in our successful fight against" IS and that "leaving them to die [was] a big mistake"
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president "must reverse this dangerous decision", described by her as "reckless" and "misguided"
Kino Gabriel, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - which occupy former IS territory in north-eastern Syria - told Arabic TV station al-Hadath that the move "was a surprise and we can say that it is a stab in the back for the SDF"
Brett McGurk, former US special presidential envoy for the coalition against IS, said the announcement demonstrated a "complete lack of understanding of anything happening on the ground"

This is certainly not going to be good for the Kurds....

I am rooting for the Kurds.

Getting their own country is one thing, getting murdered by their neighbors who hate them is quite another. It's for the latter that we should not have bailed out on them.

So we are supposed to keep fighting for them forever? Our people have been getting killed too in the process. Why do their neighbors hate them so much?

What were the promises?

At most, a country of their own.
At least, freedom from being ethnically cleansed.