Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on U.S. Syria Policy
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed examining the decision by United States President Donald Trump to pull U.S. troops from the northern Syria border.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “Trump’s Erratic Behaviour on Turkey-Syria Creates Firestorm in US,” was published in The Arab Weekly on October 12, 2019.
From the text of the article:
The decision by US President Donald Trump to pull US troops from the northern Syria border, enabling Turkey to unleash an offensive against the Syrian Kurds, caused a political uproar in the United States, even among his erstwhile political allies.
The crisis reflects several aspects about Trump’s erratic behaviour.
First is his impulsivity and disdain for the interagency process. Trump made this withdrawal decision immediately after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who apparently convinced him that Turkey needed to clear this area of “terrorists.”
While the White House claims the Pentagon was informed of the decision beforehand, this assessment has been challenged by former US Central Command chief, retired Army General Joseph Votel.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).