As I see it the US doesn't really care any more but (until Mueller interviews him) we are dealing with Trump's ego here, along with his need to distract he domestic audience away from the Russia collusion and money laundering allegations. What better way to sink those allegations than to stand up to Putin in Syria (or be seen to do so) ?
I have heard that Turkey owed a s*&t load of money to EU banks which may be one reason why there has been no outright condemnation of the Afrin attack.
What the US does of course have is economic clout and in this respect Turkey is a large minnow. ..... . in one sense powerless ...... but in another large enough to cause a major crisis amongst banks sitting on mountains of bad loans. Just a second. The likely response by the ECB and Fed would be another round of QE ..... which is what Trump himself needs to avoid another bankruptcy. There would be no Russian financial instos willing to bail Trump out in present circumstances.
Yeah .... McMaster and Mattis need to (but do they?) realise that Afrin could develop to be a classic honey trap.
