will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of turkey are for more on this now i'm joined by jonathan katz in washington he is a foreign policy analyst with the german marshall fund and jonathan it's good to see you again help us make sense donald trump's syria decisions you know within a few hours today the u.s. president cleared the way for what is expected to be a turkish assault against kurdish fighters at the same time he threatens to destroy the turkish economy if turkey gives quote off limits in syria which message are we supposed to believe. well this is again a bit of the unpredictability of of president trump and i think it highlights the challenge for us foreign policy makers decision makers in the pentagon in the white house and elsewhere that the president has once again this is almost a repeat of what he did several months ago announcing that u.s. troops are going to withdraw from syria so the question is you know the president a united states got a phone call with president decided without. talking to his top advisors terms of what he's doing he tweets out a policy and that

jonathan katz, is an expert on us—turkish relations at the washington—based think tank, the german marshallm whether he thought the situation in northern syria looked like the victory that mrtrump has claimed. this is not a victory for the united states, despite what president trump has said. in fact, it is a victory for isis, for mr putin, mrassad, hezbollah and iran, but it's not a victory for the united states. as you mentioned earlier, in washington today, there is a bipartisan consensus that the president's policy in syria was a disaster that leaves the united states more vulnerable and our allies as well more vulnerable. and when you see the devastation, how it has impacted kurds, hundreds of thousands who have been displaced, hundreds killed, how can you call that a victory? the critics are saying this is president trump claiming credit for providing an answer he created. yep. but i suppose he has a point that the disengagement from this area begun from president 0bama, drawing redlines he never backed up. i do not think that is what is at stake here right now. president trump's poli