i am joined by daniel gary locke -- daniel gerlach, a middle east analyst and editor of a magazine thatocuses on middle east issues. what did you think when you read those tweets from the u.s. president? daniel: the last one about annihilation of the turkish economy is a different story. i cannot comment on the language that trump uses here, but the pull out itself is not so surprising. trump a year ago announced the u.s. would pull out. he backtracked, but in general he did not really change his mind or policy. it was like for a moment he realized, or the people with him at the time at the defense establishment, said it is much easier to stay because once we are out, we cannot undo the decision. let's look at the cost. staying in syria doesn't cost much. we don't lose our troops there, we don't lose a lot of money, we don't engage in active combat. it is a pretty low cost operation so let's keep a foot in the door. brent: do you think it is a mistake? daniel: from the point of view of a strategist who wants to create u.s. leverage in the region, i think it is a disaster. it was a very