Having provoked bipartisan and international condemnation for abruptly announcing a withdrawal of US troops from northern
Syria, effectively greenlighting the subsequent
Turkish incursion into largely Kurdish-held territory,
Donald Trump quickly did an about face.Some troops, he announced last week, would be returning to the country. But not to support those Kurdish allies, so vital in the US-led coalition's battle against Isis, but to "secure the oil," he repeated on Monday.