How Trump betrayed the general who defeated ISIS

Trump had made the decision unilaterally, U.S. officials told me. There had been no interagency review, no conferring with military brass, no discussions with the dozens of other countries in the U.S.-led coalition. Many were as surprised as Mazloum was. The pivot had been another telephone conversation with President Erdoğan. The Turkish leader asked why the U.S. needed two thousand troops in Syria if the caliphate was collapsing. Two days later, Trump tweeted, “We have defeated isis in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” The problem was that isis had not yet collapsed. It still had tens of thousands of fighters, families, and fans in pockets of the Euphrates River Valley.

In Washington, the backlash to Trump’s abrupt decision was immediate. Defense Secretary James Mattis pleaded with the President to change his mind; when he didn’t, Mattis resigned. So did McGurk. Even Trump’s Republican allies expressed outrage. Lindsey Graham called the decision a “stain on the honor of the United States.” A bipartisan group of senators appealed to the White House. “If you decide to follow through with your decision to pull our troops out of Syria, any remnants of isis in Syria will surely renew and embolden their efforts in the region,” they wrote.

In a rare public statement, Mazloum also appealed to Trump, asking him to keep at least half of the two thousand troops in place until all of the Islamic State’s territory was liberated. “We would like to have air cover, air support and a force on the ground to coordinate with us,” Kobani told reporters travelling with an American military delegation. “American forces must remain beside us.” Trump had once pledged to protect the S.D.F., Mazloum said. “I want him to live up to his word.” In a separate conversation, he admitted to me, “We’re worried about being alone again.”