themselves. but frankly, they don t hold a lot of cards. they were getting slaughtered. they were facing the second largest army in nato. an army that apparently had the green light of the united states even though president trump says he never gave the green light. but the u.s. never actually tried to stop this conflict. there were there have been, throughout this time, american forces in syria who were ordered to do nothing to stop the turkish assault. so this this this was a great victory tonight for erdogan. i think he is trying to go down in history as the person who extended turkey s borders, added a new province, and is now going to put between one to three million new new turks, if you will, on syrian territory. and, colonel jack, in the bigger picture here and back to what mitt romney was saying about our allies, if the united states has does to the kurds
civil servants who are proving, and our foreign service personnel in particular, on whose shoulders the syria saga is going to fall. we live in a healthy democracy because we have an ethical and competent civil service and foreign service. i want my grandchildren to grow up like them. so notwithstanding the political let us be grateful for a moment for those people who are keeping us going under tremendously different difficult circumstances. so, elizabeth holtsman, i think the picture is becoming clearer of the way that president trump and not just circumvented all traditional avenues. you have somebody like a rudy giuliani who has no security clearance, who has no role, formal role, in the white house. but is the president s personal lawyer. essentially, directing foreign policy.