A couple weeks ago I asked a couple simple questions:

Why, oh why, would we choose the YPG-dominated SDF, over our long time NATO ally?

Why are we militarily containing Turkey?

Make no mistake, we have set our military against Turkey, and that is huge.

Turkey thought about it for a week, and then formally objected.

When that didn't do anything, Turkey decided on direct military confrontation.



The US called on Turkey to not follow through on threats to attack US-backed forces in Syria Wednesday, an incursion the Pentagon warned could threaten US personnel and derail the fight against ISIS.

"Unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern. We would find any such actions unacceptable," Commander Sean Robertson, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, told CNN.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that he will order a military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria within days. We have roughly 2,000 American troops in that same area.



Erdoğan also expressed disappointment that US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria had not left the town of Manbij, as agreed in a US-Turkish deal brokered this year. “The Americans are not being honest; they are still not removing terrorists [from Manbij],” he said. “Therefore, we will do it.”

Manbij will be the first target, but Turkey is also targeting Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, which are hundreds of kilometers away.

Like their previous operations in Afrin and northern Aleppo, Turkey will be using jihadist allies that were previously fighting the Assad government.