There has been plenty written and said about how reckless and cruel Trump's withdrawal of troops from Northern Syria is - what a deep betrayal it is to the Kurds, our only true allies in the region. It nearly guarantees a resurgence of ISIS, which, primarily because of Kurdish muscle and will, has been corralled and contained. Malcolm Nance joined Joy Reid's panel this morning to discuss all of that, and more. He began with the warning, "First off and foremost, forget anything that you hear from this administration. This administration lies about everything that they're saying right now, everything that they're saying is a lie."
Joy Reid asked Nance to also explain the Russia connection. Russia is benefitting from this, and the reasons need to be spotlighted. She wanted to know what Russia is getting out of all this backwards maneuvering in Turkey and Syria. "Russia gets the Middle East!" Nance practically shouted - not AT Joy, but one can assume, in absolute dismay and incredulity at the degree to which Putin is pulling the strings.
REID: Yeah.
NANCE: Russia is now calling all the shots in the Middle East, and I wouldn't be surprised if Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin to get advice on this before he made his deal with Turkey.
It wouldn't surprise most of us if he called Putin for advice on this, and any other foreign policy move that might benefit Trump's Big Daddy in Russia. That secret code-word-protected server may have a lot of stories to tell.