‘I can’t even look at the atrocities’: U.S. troops say Trump’s Syria withdrawal betrayed an ally

Mod: Nobody understands more clearly the consequences of Trump's betrayal of the Kurdish people than the Americans who fought in Syria. Their anger at his actions is loud and clear.

‘I can’t even look at the atrocities’: U.S. troops say Trump’s Syria withdrawal betrayed an ally (MSN.comlink): Watching the rapid disintegration of security in Syria and the U.S. withdrawal, Marty Palmer recalled the night an Islamic State car bomb exploded near the Kurdish unit partnered with his Army Special Forces team.

The attack in the summer of 2017 killed about eight Kurdish fighters, Palmer said. U.S. soldiers spent much of the night patching up about a dozen survivors, who were then whisked away to a nearby Kurdish medical facility.

“I look at that event and it stands out to me as so representative of the sacrifice the Kurds made in the fight against ISIS,” Palmer said, using an acronym that describes the Islamic State. “It’s just one of many instances where they showed that type of bravery. The very next day, they were right back at it.”

Palmer, 32, is among several thousand U.S. troops and veterans who served in northern Syria and are witnessing the messy end of a years-long alliance with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The U.S.-backed militia has been one of America’s closest partners in the war against the Islamic State since 2014, and some 11,000 Kurdish fighters have been killed in combat against the terrorist group. But with President Trump’s orders to withdraw all 1,000 U.S. troops from northern                                      in the face of a Turkish offensive, those who have served alongside Kurdish forces are left to consider America’s new place in the world.

“It feels like we’re abandoning our closest ally in the fight against ISIS, and we’re abandoning them to a fate that is going to end very poorly for them,” said Palmer, who left active duty last year. To 'completely abandon' a force that has “given thousands of lives for this conflict is really tough to watch.”

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, asked Monday about the service members' criticism on Syria, said he likes candor, but that soldiers must not be disobedient. “Everybody has an opinion in a war of ideas,” he said, speaking at a conference by the Association of the U.S. Army. “But ultimately, when national policy decisions are made, we salute and move out.”

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