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National media regarded President trump’s withdrawal of 50 U.S. military advisers from the Syrian border with Turkey as a” sell-out, ” a “betrayal” and a ” huge strategic mistake.”

Let’s be clear: none of them care about the Kurds. Otherwise, they would regularly send correspondents and film crews to Rojava, as the Kurds call the North of Syria.

Let’s also clarify the goals of Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan. While it has tried to style its military invasion of Rojava as a counter-terrorism operation, few international observers have bought into it. Why? Because there have been no terrorist attacks on Turkey from Syrian territory since the Syrian Kurds established their self-governing entity in 2012. None.

Erdogan is not remotely interested in fighting ISIS or in taking responsibility for the roughly 12,000 ISIS fighters currently held by Kurds in the al-Khol refugee camp. What ACTUALLY happens to those ISIS prisoners, and the fate of the Christian and Yazidi minorities, will be key measures of the agreement struck by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of state Mike Pompeo with Erdogan on Thursday.

The humanitarian disaster that unfolded last week helped paint Erdogan as a notorious mass murderer like Saddam Hussein. And it was Erdogan’s legacy that the President addressed in his private and now public letter to the Turkish President as the crisis unfolded.

Erdogan’s true goal with this invasion was to defeat Kurdish self-rule, and these 50 American advisers were the last on his way.

But let’s be clear about the U.S. goals, too. Our advisers were not in Northern Syria to defend the Kurdish government, but to fight ISIS. The fight to defeat THE ISIS Caliphate is over and we have won.

No U.S. administration has ever bought Kurdish national aspirations. Even Pro-Kurdish former Secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who has long been an investor in Kurdish oil, has warned Iraqi Kurds to cancel a planned independence referendum in September 2017.

When Kurdish regional government Chairman Masoud Barzani ignored those warnings, Tillerson said the results “lack legitimacy” and warned there would be serious consequences. The United States did nothing when Baghdad sent troops to the Iraqi city of Kirkuk Shortly after the vote, then arrested the Kurdish Governor-General and regained control of the Northern oil fields. It was a huge strategic blow to the Iraqi Kurds.

I have met with Kurdish political and military leaders in the region, including the PYD, the political arm of the Kurdish people’s protection Units militia. And while they were thrilled with U.S. support in the fight against ISIS, none of them had any illusions that the U.S. would come to their aid in the event of a Turkish attack.

Do the President’s critics really think he should have viewed these 50 American soldiers as a “journey” that would trigger a massive U.S. military invasion of Syria to fight against Turkey-our NATO ally?

The President has taken concrete, immediate steps to shame and punish Erdogan for his outrageous violation of the North Atlantic Charter, which calls on member States “to resolve any international disputes in which they may be involved by peaceful means… and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of The United Nations.”

The President on Monday imposed new sanctions on Turkish officials and government agencies, imposed tough tariffs on Turkish steel exports to the United States and canceled talks on a $100 billion trade deal.

On Tuesday, the us justice Department unveiled a criminal case against Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank for allowing Iran to buy billions of dollars ‘ worth of gold using frozen oil money, violating economic sanctions. The complaint makes clear that senior government officials, including perhaps including Erdogan himself, took huge bribes in exchange for allowing the scheme to continue.

Those sanctions – and the threat of new sanctions – paid off and forced Erdogan to back down.

The Kurds are paying a heavy price in this battle – not because of U.S. betrayal – but because they remain negligent and thus powerless. By targeting Erdogan financially, legally and undermining his legitimacy, President trump has done more to help the Kurds than his critics with his crocodile tears. In the meantime, he wins.

Kenneth R. Timmerman is the best-selling author of ” ISIS begins: a novel of the Iraq war.” In 2010-2016, he lectured on Iran at the Pentagon’s joint counterintelligence training Academy.