I honestly, I think if you put aside Trump's tweeting and yelling and screaming and everything

and all the other critics, and you actually look at how we systematically responded to the incursion,

we did pretty good considering the resources and the influence we had to bear.

We should actually be giving the president

credit for that rather than criticism for not doing something which realistically was

beyond America's means or interests to do.

From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Tim Desher, and this is Heritage Explains.

October is the best month if you live in D.C.

The temperature is relenting, the autumn leaves, apple picking, pumpkin beer,

and of course this year, the Nationals are in the World Series.

But October 2019 has also been dominated by other news items. No, not impeachment. Syria. We want to get to that major U.S. policy change in the Middle East that we talked about at the very top of the show.

Late last night, the White House announced that U.S. troops are beginning a withdrawal from northern Syria

near the Turkish border.

It began this morning, Turkey launching a military assault in Syria that they'd been telegraphing

for a day or so, against a Kurdish fighting force that has been a critical ally of the United

States and that U.S. troops have been working alongside for the past five years.

As you are probably aware, President Trump received significant criticism from voices both on the

left and right here in D.C.

This is the most screwed up decision I've seen since I've been in Congress.

To abandon them is really the height of, I don't even have words to say what it means

that we have abandoned our allies to be slaughtered by the Turkish military.

What we did in walking away from them was two really bad things.

...