Russia moves in to the Middle East

So Russia is moving in to the Middle East, now that Trump has abandoned the field:

The negotiations ended in a victory for Mr. Putin: Russian and Turkish troops will take joint control over a vast swath of formerly Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria, in a move that cements the rapid expansion of Russian influence in Syria at the expense of the United States and its Kurdish former allies. Under terms of the agreement, Syrian Kurdish forces have six days to retreat more than 20 miles from the border, abandoning land that they had controlled uncontested until earlier this month — when their protectors, the American military, suddenly began to withdraw from the region.

This is, I think, the first time this has ever happened to the United States. But with Trump, likely not the last time.  What an embarrassment.

Moscow is now the powerbroker in the Middle East as Trump has rendered the US irrelevant. Putin has temporarily ceded Erdogan a buffer zone from which he can displace Kurdish inhabitants (aka ethnic cleansing) in return for recognition of Moscow's diktat. https://t.co/Ki4Gbokw4w

— Michael Carpenter (@mikercarpenter) October 22, 2019

There is gonna be SO much Hillary stuff on Fox News tonight

— Ben Wexler (@mrbenwexler) October 22, 2019