Trump visits Iraq but doesn't care about US allies in Syria

At least Donald and Melania Trump did one thing right. They went to Iraq to see the US troops who serve there with very little recognition from the people back home. Iraq has become like Afghanistan. The war and post-war and post-Isis have been going on for so long that most people are probably bored with the Iraq problem which is tough for the servicemen and women who still have to grind out their days in the intense heat and hostility of Iraq and try to help bring the country to its senses. There are 5,200 American troops from different services still in Iraq, training and advising the Iraqi security forces and so far Trump hasn't demanded their withdrawal. That time will come no doubt but at the moment he has satisfied himself with the pull-out of 2000 troops from Syria and 7,000 from Afghanistan. So he turned up with his First Lady to speak to the troops in Iraq, his first visit to see American military serving in an overseas assignment since taking office in January 2017. He wasn't shy about talking through his decision to withdraw the troops from Syria. He just said it was time for someone else to destroy the remnants of Isis in Syria and made it clear he was relying on the Turks to do the job. Well, we'll see. I don't suppose the Turks will be very discriminatory when they invade northern Syria with their tanks and armoured personnel carriers. President Erdogan may have told Trump he will finish off the Isis militants but really he wants a chance to eliminate the Kurds who, despite their brilliant achievements on the battlefield against Isis with American firepower and training, the Turkish autocrat believes they are terrorists and threaten the security of his country. If and when hundreds of Kurdish fighters die after the Turks invade, it will be difficult not to accuse Trump of betraying America's former allies and comrades. Meanwhile, quite what the British and French special forces will do once their American colleague leaves northeastern Syria, I don't know. They are relatively few in number and, like the Kurds, rely on the US to fight and train alongside them, and in far superior numbers and with far superior firepower. Once the Americans have gone home, they will be lonely warriors with an uncertain and much more dangerous future. Just like the Kurds.