To the Editor:

Re “Turkey Attacks U.S. Ally in Syria” (front page, Oct. 10):

Let’s make no mistake about what Turkish forces are doing in Syria this week — naked unilateral aggression and illegal by any international norms. And it is aided and abetted by our commander in chief.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have made no offensive or threatening moves against Turkey, nor is there any indication they intend to. That they have connections to the P.K.K. ( deemed terrorist by Washington and Ankara ) is hardly a valid reason for Turkey to claim that it has a legitimate right to begin an all-out invasion across an international border. In fact the Syrian Democratic Forces are our most effective partner in fighting ISIS in Syria.

The dissembling statements coming from the White House are remarkable in their distance from reality: “ They didn’t help us in the Second World War. ” Neither did Germany, now one of our staunchest European allies.

“ 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.” If Mr. Trump was not aware of the imminent deaths among our Kurdish allies and civilians, then perhaps the national security adviser to President Barack Obama, Susan Rice, was right to ask in a CNN interview, “ What is he smoking ? ”