Trump Tweeted Pulling Out of Syria Then He Supposedly Reversed Thta Now We Are Leaving Again

Trump Said to Favor Leaving a Few Hundred Troops in Eastern Syria

The president appears to be trying to balance competing impulses: bringing troops home while ensuring that efforts to contain ISIS will continue — and answering withering criticism for his Syria policy.

Credit... Ahmed Mardnli/EPA, via Shutterstock

Oct. 20, 2019

WASHINGTON — President Trump is leaning in favor of a new Pentagon plan to keep a small contingent of American troops in eastern Syria, perhaps numbering about 200, to combat the Islamic State and block the advance of Syrian government and Russian forces into the region's coveted oil fields, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

If Mr. Trump approves the proposal to leave a couple of hundred Special Operations forces in eastern Syria, it would mark the second time in 10 months that he has reversed his order to pull out nearly all American troops from the country. Last December, Mr. Trump directed 2,000 American troops to leave Syria immediately, only to relent later and approve a more gradual withdrawal.

The decision would also be the potential second major political reversal in a matter of days under pressure from his own party, after he rescinded on Saturday a decision to host next year's Group of 7 summit at his own resort.

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What It Looks Like as U.S. Troops Leave Syria

Residents throwing vegetables at American troops. Russian and Syrian forces taking control. This is a picture of the U.S. withdrawal from northeastern Syria.

[Non-English shouting] These are some of the American troops who've been ordered to leave Syria. They're driving through the mostly Kurdish city of Qamishli and headed to Iraq. It's vegetables that are bouncing off the armor and sticking to the windows. The U.S. troop pullout is controversial. Many in the Kurdish north feel betrayed. American soldiers were essentially protecting them from attacks by Turkish forces. But President Trump has long pushed for an American pullout. "I don't want to be in Syria forever. It's sand, and it's death." Elsewhere in Syria, the withdrawal is less eventful. Military convoys join routine traffic on the highways. But it's not just the exit that draws attention. It's what the Americans leave behind. Like this outpost near the city of Manbij, filmed by a Russian journalist. Here's what it looked like when U.S. troops were stationed in the area. Now they're gone, and Russian media has arrived, literally opening the gates. Russia is trying to fill the void left by the U.S. in Syria, moving its forces into Kurdish areas to broaden influence across the country. In social media posts, Russian reporters make a special point to highlight the signs of a hasty American withdrawal: discarded footballs, and empty sleeping quarters. At another base, it's a "Harry Potter" book and hand-drawn signs supporting the troops. But at the Lafarge cement factory, a former base, the U.S. disposes of what it left behind. A defense official announces that American planes bombed U.S. munitions stored there to prevent anyone else from using them. How quickly do Russian troops move in? Here are U.S. and Russian troops at the same strategic location, just two days apart. And it's not just Russians moving in. A lone Syrian Army soldier scales a hill that's close by and waves the flag of President Bashar al-Assad's government, which originally lost this territory to armed rebels seven years ago. Small groups of American troops will remain elsewhere in Syria on different missions. But for now, the U.S. role in working with and defending Kurds in the north has come to an abrupt end.

Residents throwing vegetables at American troops. Russian and Syrian forces taking control. This is a picture of the U.S. withdrawal from northeastern Syria. Credit Credit... Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Trump has come under withering criticism from former military commanders, Democrats and even some of his staunchest Republican allies for pulling back United States troops from Syria's border with Turkey, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive that in nearly two weeks has killed scores of Syrian Kurdish fighters and civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents.

A senior administration official said on Sunday that Mr. Trump has since last week been considering a plan to leave a couple of hundred troops in northeast Syria, near the border with Iraq, for counterterrorism efforts. The official said it is a concept Mr. Trump favors.

Three other administration and Defense Department officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential military planning, confirmed over the weekend that the option was being discussed among top American policymakers and commanders.

The senior administration official said it was highly likely that troops would be kept along the Iraqi border area — away from the cease-fire zone that Vice President Mike Pence negotiated with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey last week. The main goal would be to prevent the Islamic State from re-establishing all or parts of its religious state, or caliphate, in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

A side benefit would be helping the Kurds keep control of oil fields in the east, the official said.

Mr. Trump seemed to hint at this outcome in a message on Twitter on Sunday, saying, "We have secured the Oil."

The senior administration official suggested that the president was balancing competing impulses: achieving the ultimate goal of bringing United State forces home from Syria — part of a signature campaign promise to pull American troops from "endless wars" — and ensuring that efforts to contain and diminish ISIS continue. The order also could be heard as at least a partial answer to those who have criticized the president's policy.

Listen to 'The Daily': Trapped in Syria, Part 1: A Father's Fight

He says his daughter was tricked by her husband into joining ISIS. We hear about one man's battle to bring his family home from a war zone.

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transcript

Listen to 'The Daily': Trapped in Syria, Part 1: A Father's Fight

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Lynsea Garrison, Michael Simon Johnson and Austin Mitchell, and edited by Lisa Tobin

He says his daughter was tricked by her husband into joining ISIS. We hear about one man's battle to bring his family home from a war zone.

lynsea garrison

Kamalle, have you gotten in touch with Mariam in, like, the last 24 hours or so? Or have you heard from her recently?

kamalle dabboussy

I got a message from her. I got a message from Mariam. I wasn't able to speak to her.

livia albeck-ripka

Can you read the message to us?

kamalle dabboussy

I'm — it's actually, it's two messages. If Australia doesn't save, I think, the Aussies here right now, we're slaves, and we're screwed. And I think I'm going to die. That's the two messages received overnight from her.

livia albeck-ripka

That can't be an easy text to receive as a father.

kamalle dabboussy

No, it's not.

Yeah, I — it's the fear of the unknown, and the fear of not knowing. But they are more petrified of the Syrians taking over than of anything else. And that's their worst-case scenario. And that's — ISIS cells and Syrian regime are the two biggest threats. And they seem to be becoming realized as the days progress.

livia albeck-ripka

And do you think that Mariam's fears are —

kamalle dabboussy

Justified? Yeah, absolutely, I think her fears are justified. Absolutely, they are. If the Syrians come in, absolutely, they are.

[music]

livia albeck-ripka

Over the past few months, I've been getting to know a group of families in Australia, who've been organizing, providing solace to one another, because they are members of this strange club of people whose daughters and mothers and sisters are the family members of ISIS fighters. The person who I've gotten to know the best is Kamalle Dabboussy.

kamalle dabboussy

I wanted to be an engaged father.

Wanted her to grow up with people around her that loved her and that she could find solace with, that she could find friendships with. That's really the expectations that I'd had. I, you know, never had the expectations that Mariam was going to be a future doctor, or chemist, or engineer. That wasn't in my thoughts. It was really just making her a happy, well-rounded child and hopeful that she can achieve whatever she wanted to achieve. And I tried.

[music]

michael barbaro

In the months since the United States defeated ISIS in Syria, ISIS militants and their family members have been held in prison camps controlled by the U.S.-allied Kurdish forces. And in that time, parents around the world have been trying to get their daughters and grandchildren back to their home countries. But in the two weeks since President Trump abruptly recalled U.S. troops from the Syrian border, the fate of these women and children has become an urgent and unknown question. The Kurdish forces that had been guarding the camps have turned to defending themselves from the Turkish military coming across the border. And their new allies in Syria are now poised to take control of the camps. Today on "The Daily," my colleague Livia Albeck-Ripka follows one father as he fights to get his daughter home.

It's Monday, October 21.

Livia, tell me about Mariam.

livia albeck-ripka

Mariam was Kamalle's first child. She was born in 1991. He describes her as this really —

kamalle dabboussy

She was a stubborn little thing. [CHUCKLES]

livia albeck-ripka

— stubborn, lively toddler. And she kind of ran rings around her parents.

kamalle dabboussy

She had a great wonder for the world. She always wanted to go about exploring. She always wanted to go out and visit. She always wanted to go out and see. Even just down to the local shop to get something was an adventure for her. And she'd walk out. And she'd be the first — and she'd be dressed right away to go. And she'd love to go out and see whatever she could see with the world. And she was determined. And that was lovely. You didn't want a child to sit in a corner and just say, yes, sir, no, sir. You want her to go and explore, and test the boundaries, and figure out the world. And she was all that and more. She took up every space in our life, if I could put it that way.

livia albeck-ripka

She's really boisterous, strong-willed. And from pretty early on, she starts to express to Kamalle that she really wants a little brother or sister. It's kind of like from the very beginning, she knows that she wants to have a big family. So Kamalle and his wife have a little girl, Mariam's sister. They kind of adored each other. They just had this wonderful sibling relationship.

michael barbaro

So this very much sounds like the kind of childhood that Kamalle was hoping for Mariam.

livia albeck-ripka

It was, but it didn't last. Kamalle's marriage wasn't working out. Eventually, the two separate, and they split up the girls. Mariam is about 12, 13 at this time. She's really upset about the split. But a decision is made. She's going to go and live with Kamalle. And at first, it's tough.

kamalle dabboussy

Then when she passed a certain age, and she started to understand things a bit better, we became very close. And —

livia albeck-ripka

They have Sunday morning pancakes together. And they become closer and closer. They kind of, they tell each other everything.

kamalle dabboussy

And we became — she became, you know, a very close friend, not only my daughter but a close friend.

livia albeck-ripka

I've heard you call her your best friend.

kamalle dabboussy

Yes. She was my best friend growing up. She had — by virtue of the fact that we were in the same house, she had my secrets. And I had her secrets. And she knew that. And —

livia albeck-ripka

One day, Mariam meets a boy. His name is Khaled. And she's only 16. So it takes a little while for Kamalle to get to know this guy. But he likes him. He says —

kamalle dabboussy

I did. I very much liked him. He was sweet. He was gentle. He was a little bit undisciplined in what he was doing in life. He actually reminded — he reminded me of myself a fair bit.

livia albeck-ripka

Mm.

kamalle dabboussy

I quite liked him. He was very, you know, he was — he seemed to have the temperament for her as well. She was —

livia albeck-ripka

Khaled also has this really big, stable family that it's clear Mariam is drawn to.

kamalle dabboussy

His family had been a bit more traditional and conservative than I was.

livia albeck-ripka

But they're a little more strict and conservative than Kamalle's practice of Islam, which is more philosophical, more based on his interpretation of what he thinks the laws mean, rather than ritualistically practicing them. But he says these people are really good people. He likes them. So eventually, Mariam comes to Kamalle. And she is barely 18. She tells him she wants to marry Khaled.

kamalle dabboussy

I didn't have an objection to him. I had an objection to their age.

livia albeck-ripka

Kamalle says, no way. She kind of accepts it. And she asks him again and again and again. And finally, Kamalle relinquishes. He says, O.K. Who am I to stand in the way of this?

kamalle dabboussy

She wanted a family. And she wanted children. And that's really what her want was. So I just made sure that that was her choice, not that she was being bullied into it, basically. That's what it was, really making sure with her, and that was her choice. And, yeah, that was the next phase of her life. And I was very happy for her.

I had hoped that she had remained close to me. But circumstances were that she wasn't going to stay close to me that long after that.

livia albeck-ripka

After Mariam marries Khaled, she moves in with him to a little granny flat at the back of his parents' home. They eventually have a baby. And Kamalle starts noticing Mariam changing. It's nothing extreme at first. It just seems to him that they're adopting the views of Khaled's family, becoming a little more conservative, praying more often. But it's when Mariam puts on the scarf —

kamalle dabboussy

Which, in itself, is not — it's not a bad thing. It's just she'd decided to wear the scarf, where up until that stage, no one in our family wears a scarf. So it was a change.

livia albeck-ripka

— that he has questions.

kamalle dabboussy

And I, you know, I didn't take the first answer she gave to me. I pushed and pushed till a point that I was satisfied.

livia albeck-ripka

What was that first answer?

kamalle dabboussy

She just said, I did it myself. No one's told me to do this. And I just, again, prodded and prodded, and tried to make her see that sometimes, the — you could be — there could be a suggestion made. And you've not realized that you're pushed into that corner. And she felt, no, that she was quite — she felt that she was making the decision herself.

livia albeck-ripka

And eventually, he accepts it, because he believes it's her choice. Then they all go on this extended family trip. It's really fun and exciting. Khaled's never been overseas before. He and Mariam have this new baby girl. And they go to Malaysia. And then they go to Dubai. And —

kamalle dabboussy

He was fun-loving. He was out and about. We went exploring. We did a safari tour together.

livia albeck-ripka

It's all really good. But Kamalle does notice Khaled drawing a little bit away from him. And he tries to talk to him. He says that Khaled, who he calls K., was doing all these extra prayers. Kamalle kind of questions it. But K. won't engage with him. There's this block.

kamalle dabboussy

And so I thought to myself, O.K., I need to do a bit more work on this one, gently, rather than trying to — you know, two ways to break a stone — you know, get a sledgehammer and break it, or a drop of water slowly to break it open. I wanted to take the drop of water approach, let it break it up, and see if I can get some conversations and start challenging some of those thoughts.

livia albeck-ripka

So Kamalle has to get back to Australia for work. He leaves his daughter and his son-in-law in Dubai. And they go on to Lebanon. And they're supposed to go on from there to Greece and then come home to Australia. But while they're in Lebanon, Khaled suggests a trip to Turkey. Kamalle doesn't really read too much into this. Turkey is a beautiful country, a beautiful place to visit. But then communications started to dissipate. And then it kind of goes quiet for a couple of weeks.

And then, there's a knock on his door. It was the police. They told him, your daughter is in Syria.

kamalle dabboussy

Oh, I was in disbelief. I said, no, that couldn't be the case. I — it was just disbelief. I just didn't believe it to be true.

livia albeck-ripka

Kamalle really starts to worry. He starts trying to call his contacts. He starts trying to find Mariam, and he can't.

[music]

livia albeck-ripka

And a month goes by before he does. Some text messages, some phone calls start to come in from Mariam. She says, I'm safe. She doesn't tell her father where she is. And she says, don't do anything stupid.

kamalle dabboussy

I really refused for it to be true until Mariam had said to me, saying that, Dad, I thought you might have realized what had happened to me. And I don't want you to do anything risky to yourself. Just stay put, basically, is what she said to me. And so that was actually the real moment that I knew that's where she was.

livia albeck-ripka

She was with ISIS.

[music]

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

Livia, this would have been 2015, so the year after ISIS declared the caliphate and started to call on Muslims around the world to join them there. In these early days, what's Kamalle's understanding of Mariam's role in ISIS? Did he think that she might be a combatant? Did he think she was kind of a passive supporter, who was suddenly in the midst of these true believers? I mean, what was his sense of this?

livia albeck-ripka

He didn't know. He was sort of surviving on this drip feed of information that was coming to him via sporadic texts and calls. Sometimes he didn't even know if the text messages were from Mariam herself. Or she would be on a call. And she'd say, Dad, don't talk. I'll talk. And it was clear to him that somebody was watching her and controlling her. And so he really — he doesn't know. But he does have doubts.

kamalle dabboussy

There was a small period of time, of course, you doubt the situation. You doubt everything that you know. And you re-evaluate everything that you know. And like most people, I suppose you've got different options in your head and different scenarios in your head. And you're trying to figure out what's right and what's not right.

livia albeck-ripka

Did it seem like something Mariam would be capable of doing?

kamalle dabboussy

No, it wasn't something that Mariam was capable of doing. But to say I never thought that could be a possibility? I thought about it. There was a period of time I thought, maybe she chose to go.

livia albeck-ripka

How would that have made you feel as a father?

kamalle dabboussy

Very disappointed. Very, very disappointed. Quite shocked, actually, knowing everything we've done together, and everything we've grown up together, and everything that she knew that I believed in, and what I thought she believed in, I would've been really shocked. I — yeah.

livia albeck-ripka

Once they had made initial contact, Kamalle and Mariam kept talking as much as they could, given the censorship, all of the monitored communication. And it's some time after this that Kamalle learns that Khaled has been killed. And here and there, Mariam starts to suggest that she no longer wants to be there. Kamalle said she would sneak away without any guards and text Kamalle a few words. During one of these private moments, she told him, I was forced. And finally, she tells Kamalle, she's going to make a break for it.

[music]

kamalle dabboussy

My mind — because in some of the discussions that we had backwards and forwards by text, which led me to believe that she'd intimated that she needed to move, which was sort of — I got from her an idea that she needed to move out of where she was.

livia albeck-ripka

After that, Kamalle didn't hear from her for 19 months, not a word.

kamalle dabboussy

And it was absolutely an awful time in my life. I didn't know whether she was alive or dead. I didn't know whether she had made it safe. I didn't know the condition of the kids. I, you know, went into a depression. I sought medical help. I sought professional help as the days and the months passed.

And I had started to think towards the end of that period of time that she may have succumbed, that actually she may never be coming home.

And then —

livia albeck-ripka

One day he goes into his bedroom. And he looks at his phone.

kamalle dabboussy

And I'm looking at my phone. And there were these several messages. Baba, it's me. You know, Dad, it's me. Dad, it's me. Call me. Call me. And I called the phone, and it was her voice. And literally, I collapsed, just to know that she was alive, and she was O.K. And that she could tell me what had happened to her. She told me that there's another child.

livia albeck-ripka

And what happened next?

kamalle dabboussy

Well, then she said to me, Dad, if it was difficult before with two kids, it's now even more difficult with three kids. I'm not going to try and make a break for it until there's absolute safety, and things are going to happen. So she just —

livia albeck-ripka

He says she tells him it's too dangerous to try again. But by 2018, ISIS is under siege. And in the months that have passed, they're down to virtually no territory at all. And the bombing is intensifying. Mariam says her second husband is also killed. And then she's forced into a third marriage.

kamalle dabboussy

But that third marriage wasn't as dramatic as the second marriage, if I could put it that way. I think he wasn't a fighter, by the accounts. He was working in the hospital. I was told that he was actually a bit more supportive with her.

livia albeck-ripka

Some time after her third husband is captured, Kamalle gets advice that Mariam should surrender to Kurdish forces, who have been key allies to the U.S. in this fight against ISIS, and who hold territory in northeastern Syria. And then in early 2019, she contacts her father. And she lets him know she's ended up in the Al Hol camp, where the families of ISIS fighters are being held, which is where she meets the other Australian women. They begin to forge friendships with one another. They kind of connect their tents up to protect themselves from the more radicalized women, who have been known to beat and even mutilate other women in the camp who they perceive to be nonbelievers. And then Mariam thinks to herself, hey, we should get our parents to talk to one another. And so she texts her dad and says, you and the other family members need to talk to one another. You need to get us out of here.

[music]

livia albeck-ripka

So Kamalle starts making contact with the family members of these women. And this strange club starts to form. For so long — for years, in most cases — these families have been keeping a secret that their sisters, their daughters are in Syria. And suddenly, they have a forum where they can connect with one another, and talk about how hard it's been, and also begin to organize and discuss how they might get them out. They're having meetings. They're writing letters to politicians. They're stressing to government that if they're to get these women and children out, now is the time to do it. The Kurds are running the camp. Things are relatively stable. But the families sense that this isn't going to last for that long. And it's at this time that Kamalle is also planning a trip to Syria. He thinks, well, even if he can't get his daughter out, he wants to see her. And it's also an opportunity to make contact with the Kurds and the Americans to try to figure out the logistics of what it might look like to get her and the other women and children out. So earlier this year, he goes. He visits her in the Al-Hol camp.

kamalle dabboussy

Well, whatever you heard about the camp scene, it was different. This was summer. It was 50-degree heat that we were facing.

livia albeck-ripka

It is 50 degrees Celsius, or more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

kamalle dabboussy

And you looked out. And there was not a green thing in sight, not a tree, not grass. All it was was rocks. And there were these tents sitting on top of these rocks. And it really felt like a moonscape, a dusty moonscape. And it was just so hot that just getting some water to the camp was difficult. Going to get water and bringing it back was difficult.

livia albeck-ripka

So describe to me this first moment that you see Mariam. How does she look? How does she react to you?

kamalle dabboussy

So we could see the car pull up. We could see them getting out of the car. We could see them running towards us. And Mariam was carrying the youngest one in her hands. And she just hugged me. And she was excited to — you know, was very excited, breathing very heavy. And I kept telling her, just breathe. Just relax. I'm here. But, you know, she just kept saying, I can't believe you're here. I can't believe that you're here. I can't believe you made it. I can't believe you made it. And she just turned around and said, I'm broken. I need my dad. I need my dad.

livia albeck-ripka

So tell me about the moment that she actually lifted the niqab off her face and you saw her.

kamalle dabboussy

[SNIFFLING] Well, she — she'd lifted — I — I'd said to her, let me see you. Let me see you. And then she'd lift the niqab off her face, just privately. And I was shocked with how much weight she'd lost. I was shocked with how pale her skin was. But, no, I couldn't show any of that, of course.

And I just saw her. And then she'd put her niqaab back down. She wouldn't leave it up for very long.

And then I asked her about the story. And then I, you know, because this had been such a big issue to me for so long. I said, tell me, what happened? How did you get here?

[music]

livia albeck-ripka

Mariam then takes Kamalle to see the camp. But after only a few hours, he has to leave. They hug each other goodbye. Kamalle is trying to stay strong for his daughter and is grappling with the fact that he's physically there with her, and he can't take her with him. The Australian government hasn't made up its mind what to do with Mariam and the other women and children. So he goes home, alone.

So after that visit, Kamalle returns to Sydney. He's driving from Sydney to Melbourne. It's about a 10-hour drive. And he's going to Melbourne to meet with some family members of the women and children. He's on the road, and he gets a call. It's a journalist who tells him, did you see Trump's tweet? The U.S. has just given Turkey permission to cross the border. It dawns on Kamalle in this moment that everything they had been pressing the government for for months, their worst fears, could come true, that a Turkish incursion would sow instability in the region, which could ultimately cost the lives of his daughter and his grandchildren. And he knows this window to get them out is suddenly growing very, very short. So he pulls over on the side of the road, and he weeps.

[music]

kamalle dabboussy

It's shifting hour by hour. The Syrian forces coming into that space, I don't know what it means for everyone. I really don't know what it means for everyone.

So I'm going to try — sorry, even though it's 3 o'clock in the morning there, try and ring through —

livia albeck-ripka

To Mariam? Would you mind putting it on speaker?

[phone ringing]

kamalle dabboussy

Hello? Hello?

O.K.

[music]

kamalle dabboussy

O.K., sorry. It's just not letting me get through. Some — yeah.

michael barbaro

Tomorrow, Part 2 of Kamalle's story.

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today.

archived recording (john bercow)

Order.

Order.

archived recording

The ayes to the right, 322. The nos to the left, 306. [CHEERS]

michael barbaro

Parliament has rejected an agreement between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union for Britain to leave the E.U. by the end of October, likely requiring yet another delay in the Brexit process, possibly until January. Despite skepticism of the agreement, Johnson had hoped that enough lawmakers fed up with previous delays would approve it over the weekend.

archived recording

[YELLING]

michael barbaro

As Parliament voted, an estimated 1 million people demonstrated against Brexit on the streets of downtown London, arguing for a new referendum to keep Britain in the E.U.

archived recording (crowd)

Brexit!

archived recording (speaker)

When do we want it?

archived recording (crowd)

Never!

archived recording (speaker)

What do we want?

archived recording (crowd)

Brexit!

archived recording (speaker)

When do we want it?

archived recording (crowd)

Never!

michael barbaro

And President Trump has reversed course on his decision to hold the next G7 summit of world leaders at his own resort in Florida, which both Democrats and Republicans had called an illegal act of self-dealing by the president.

archived recording (mick mulvaney)

He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback. At the end of the day, you know, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business. And he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world. And he wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could. And he was very —

michael barbaro

In a tweet over the weekend, Trump cited the criticism, and said he would immediately begin searching for an alternate location.

archived recording (mick mulvaney)

I think it's the right decision to change. We'll have to find someplace else. And my guess is we'll find someplace else that the media won't like, either, for another reason.

archived recording

I just have to pick up —

michael barbaro

That's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

The officials indicated that Mr. Trump could describe the continued deployment of the small contingent of troops as a thoughtful, reasonable way to help safeguard regional and American security without violating his campaign pledge.

The senior official insisted the president's approach to the incursion ordered by Mr. Erdogan had been mischaracterized, and pushed back against a widely held public narrative that Mr. Trump "greenlighted" the attack. Critics of Mr. Trump's Syria policy have said the president, by telling Mr. Erdogan that he would order American troops to pull back from positions along the border where they had fought alongside Syrian Kurds, essentially acquiesced to the Turkish offensive.

Mr. Erdogan called Mr. Trump on Oct. 6 for the express purpose of informing him that Turkish forces planned to cross the border, the official said, and Mr. Trump made it clear to him that it was not a good idea — and did not endorse the attack. Mr. Trump followed up on Oct. 9 with a now-infamous letter to Mr. Erdogan.

The senior administration official said that the American troops were withdrawn from the border area because Turkish forces were coming across into Syria, and that they were sitting in harm's way, a rationale that Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also have expressed in recent days.

Spokeswomen for Mr. Esper and General Milley declined on Sunday to comment on any options under discussion.

White House officials argue that leaving a small contingent of troops in eastern Syria is not a policy reversal because the goal of the original withdrawal was to protect lives. Unlike Mr. Trump's withdrawal order in December, administration officials say, this time was never about bringing troops home because they were always going to remain elsewhere in the region, in particular in Iraq.

But the White House has struggled to articulate a clear position on what the administration is trying to accomplish as Mr. Erdogan has clearly been undeterred and Mr. Trump, who hates appearing weak, has shrugged off the fighting on his Twitter feed and in a campaign rally.

"It is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. WE WILL FIGHT WHERE IT IS TO OUR BENEFIT, AND ONLY FIGHT TO WIN. Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to," Mr. Trump said on Twitter on Oct. 7.

"After defeating 100% of the ISIS Caliphate, I largely moved our troops out of Syria. Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for their own land. I said to my Generals, why should we be fighting for Syria and Assad to protect the land of our enemy?" Mr. Trump said in another Twitter message on Oct. 14.

The discussion over leaving a residual counterterrorism force in eastern Syria was unfolding as the bulk of the nearly 1,000 American forces now in Syria continued to withdraw on Sunday. Mr. Esper told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan on Saturday that the troops would go to bases in western Iraq.

From there, Mr. Esper said, American troops would "help defend Iraq" and "perform a counter-ISIS mission" — presumably carrying out periodic cross-border Special Operations raids and conducting armed drone strikes against Islamic State cells. ISIS has already sought to exploit the chaos in northern Syria to break out insurgents from Kurdish-run jails, to attack Kurdish fighters and to regain momentum overall.

"They will rally. These are resilient adversaries," Gen. Tony Thomas, who retired after serving as head of the military's Special Operations Command, said of the Islamic State on the CBS program "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "We've done nothing to knock down the ideology, and I think they'll see this as certainly a respite, if not an opportunity to have a resurgence."

The proposal to keep a counterterrorism force in eastern Syria resulted from the Defense Department directing the military's Central Command in recent days to provide options for continuing the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

One of those options, which is said to be Mr. Trump's choice, would keep a contingent of about 200 Special Operations forces at a few bases in eastern Syria, some near the Iraqi border, where they have been working alongside Syrian Kurdish partners.

Military officials also are expected to brief Mr. Trump this week on that plan and of the other counterterrorism options — including keeping some troops in Syria and using other commandos based in Iraq. Mr. Trump would need to approve any plan to leave forces in any part of Syria in addition to the about 150 in Al-Tanf, a small garrison in south-central Syria.

The commander of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazlum Kobani, whose fighters switched sides to join Syrian government forces after Mr. Trump announced the American withdrawal, said on Saturday that despite the Turkish offensive, his troops had resumed counterterrorism operations near Deir al-Zour.

American officials widely interpreted the comments as a signal to Washington that the Syrian Kurds were still willing to fight in partnership with the United States against the Islamic State in eastern Syria, despite their abandonment in other parts of the country.

Some lawmakers suggested that it may be too late to contain the damage done to the counterterrorism mission and, more broadly, American credibility overseas. Representative Will Hurd, a Texas Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, described the cease-fire agreement announced on Thursday as "terms of surrender" to Turkey.

Also appearing on "Face the Nation," Mr. Hurd, a former C.I.A. officer, referred to Turkey, a NATO ally, as part of a group of American "enemies" and "adversaries" who will benefit from the cease-fire agreement.

"Our enemies and our adversaries like Iran, Russia, Turkey, they're playing chess," he said. "Unfortunately, this administration is playing checkers."

Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York.

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/world/middleeast/trump-troops-syria-turkey.html

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