Russian troops are now patrolling a contact line around Manbij between Turkish and Syrian forces.
Let us put this very simply: Putin is brilliant. He is the smartest living national ruler on the planet today. Many people have talked about his 4-d chess while we play checkers. Many people have pushed back and said he is a common tyrant, a dictator who is going to screw up. He may be a dictator, but he is also the most brilliant living politician.
For the Russians to step in so quickly and deconflict the situation simply means one thing. This was
coordinated. From the moment that Trump agreed to withdraw, like the Hitler-Stalin pact, the operation in Syria against the Kurds was coordinated between the Turks and the Syrians by the Russians. Presumably, decades from now, we will hear about the secret negotiations which led to an agreement over the areas of Syria which were to remain in a Turkish sphere, and which ones were to be reunified under Assad's rule.
The Russians have now totally dominated the mid-east, and we are playing on the defence with only the Gulf states as allies. This is incredibly damaging to the United States--and the most masterful diplomatic act of my entire adulthood.