The problem is not the process, it’s the policy. As former U.S. Envoy Brett McGurk
explained the last time the president wrote off Syria, the most important consequence of this decision is the effect it will have on U.S. allies. The U.S. has
achieved the territorial defeat of ISIS with only five U.S. combat deaths, while more the 10,000 members of the SDF forces were killed. We are, then, abandoning partners, Kurds and the SDF, that fought alongside us because we have similar interests—in order to placate the concerns of a partner, Turkey, that does not share our interests.
The sound of U.S. abandonment will be heard beyond the Middle East. The 81 countries participating in the anti-ISIS coalition who have not been given notice of the Trump administration’s decision will all be scrambling to get out of Syria and Iraq before U.S. assistance evaporates. It will be much harder to persuade those countries in the future to contribute to problems the U.S. wants solved, because we have disrespected their contributions and disregarded the political problems that explaining our actions to their citizens will create for them. We should also expect countries that are most reliant on U.S. security guarantees to search for alternatives—to the detriment of our interests on the Korean Peninsula, in Europe, and in Afghanistan.