According to Pat Buchanan, Putin gave the green light for Erdogan to go after the Kurds:
Turkey also sits astride the Dardanelles entrance to the Black Sea. NATO’s loss of Turkey would thus be a triumph for Vladimir Putin, who gave Ankara the green light to cleanse the Kurds from Afrin.
Yet Syria is but one of many challenges to U.S. foreign policy.
http://buchanan.org/blog/many-wars-many-enemies-128637
Turkey helping Islamists in Libya:
https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/01/29/opinion-turkeys-erdogan-continues-to-fuel-war-in-libya/
The real danger in Efrin? Kurd critical mass.
I the Kurds were to suddenly have manpods and ATGW’s in great numbers, the Turks could be in serious trouble in Afrin.
They can pull experience soldiers from Iraq, Iran and Turkey to fight the Turks in Syria.
A this point the US shows no indication of removing protection from Kurds in Rojava. And the Arabs around them support the Kurds.
“According to Pat Buchanan”??
I’m not a Buchananite. The article which you provided a link is a rambling dissertation about how lost US Foreign policy actually is. While that may be so in general terms, I refuse to accept that gloomy view of the US’s future and condition.
Trump is clearly stating that he intends to cultivate friends and discard those who pretend to be friends of the US and the West, but stab us in the back.
We are at war internally in the State Department, DOJ, FBI, Homeland Security and another 1/2 dozen alphabet agencies. The subversive hold over’s from the Obozo administration are being exposed and removed as possible. We are actually beginning to deal with the reality of how wasted much of our effort, wealth and ability is misdirected.
So, we should not focus on the Malthusian mindset of things will just get worse and focus on what can be done to build on our strengths and unify the nation.
Here we are.