Turkey has launched its anticipated invasion of Syria, targeting the American-allied Kurdish forces that Donald Trump abandoned in an abrupt foreign policy shift over the weekend. Strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the incursion, which he’s dubbed Operation Peace Spring, on Twitter Wednesday morning, and a spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces confirmed airstrikes had begun. (“Turkish warplanes have started to carry out airstrikes on civilian areas,” SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali tweeted Wednesday. “There is huge panic among people of the region.”) The attacks could have a devastating impact on SDF, an instrumental partner in the United States’ fight against ISIS, and may undo allies’ gains against the terrorist outfit.

The invasion was all but guaranteed after Trump announced late Sunday that he was pulling the U.S. military out of Northern Syria in advance of the move from Turkey. The White House said a statement that Trump’s decision came following a phone call with Erdogan, who regards the U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in Syria as a terrorist organization. “[The operation] will neutralize terror threats against Turkey and lead to the establishment of a safe zone, facilitating the return of Syrian refugees to their homes,” the Turkish strongman wrote on Twitter. “We will preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and liberate local communities from terrorists.”

Trump defended his decision Monday, railing against America’s “ridiculous Endless Wars” and suggesting that the U.S. owed its allies nothing beyond the “massive amounts of money and equipment” it provided them during the fight against ISIS. In an apparent attempt to soothe detractors, he promised that “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.”

Lawmakers, though, are not even remotely on board with the president’s plan. Only one, Senator Rand Paul, has spoken up in support. The rest of Trump’s allies are skeptical. “The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria,” Nikki Haley, Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, wrote on Twitter. “Leaving them to die is a big mistake.” Perhaps no one is more apoplectic than Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent Trump stooge who’s defended him in the face of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, to name just one example. “Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration,” Graham tweeted Wednesday. “This move ensures the reemergence of ISIS.”

In comments to Politico, Graham took his criticism even further, telling the outlet in a statement that “If Turkey moves into northern Syria, sanctions from hell—by Congress—will follow. Wide, deep, and devastating sanctions…To the Turkish Government: You do NOT have a green light to enter into northern Syria. There is massive bipartisan opposition in Congress, which you should see as a red line you should not cross.” This kind of dual-pronged foreign policy, by errant tweet and statement, is likely confusing not only to the president’s domestic allies, but to Turkey itself, as the government observes the U.S.’s internal firestorm. Graham and others have called on Trump to reverse his decision—“I urge President Trump to change course while there is still time by going back to the safe zone concept that was working,” Graham wrote Wednesday—but the president’s tweet (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1181896127471333381) Wednesday morning that the U.S. “should never have been in Middle East,” suggests the U.S. might not intervene further.

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