FOREIGN POLICY/SYRIA/TURKEY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The White House sent out a message aimed at mollifying Turkey’s president on Tuesday [1-23-18], suggesting that the United States was easing off its support for the Syrian Kurds.
That message was quickly contradicted by the Pentagon, which said it would continue to stand by the Kurds, even as Turkey invaded their stronghold in northwestern Syria.
The conflicting statements appeared to reflect an effort by the administration to balance competing pressures. Turkey, which has been furious over American support for the Kurds, is a NATO ally, while the Kurds have been critical American partners in the war against the Islamic State.
For its part, the White House disavowed a plan by the American military to create a Kurdish-led force in northeastern Syria, which Turkey has vehemently opposed. Turkey, which considers the Kurdish militia a terrorist organization, fears the plan would cement a Kurdish enclave along its southern frontier.
That plan, a senior administration official said Tuesday, originated with midlevel military planners in the field, and was never seriously debated, or even formally introduced, at senior levels in the White House or the National Security Council.”
-Mark Landler, Carlotta Gall, and Eric Schmitt, “Mixed Messages From U.S. as Turkey Attacks Syrian Kurds,” The New York Times online, Jan. 23, 2018