Next to Israel, the Kurds are the only decent folks worth helping over there in the middle-east esp as they have been hunted and abused by the other countries for many years.
Now that the news that the Saudis and others are stepping in to hold the line, I'm sure that the Turkish dictator is crapping his pants in surprise.
The Saudi Crown prince is probably sitting and thinking out aloud "BRING IT, YOU FOOL!" if Erdoğan tries to step into Kurdish territory to try to do them any harm.
this is actually what should be happening there, not us...them.
Why an over extended Saudi military facing off against the Turks is a win is beyond me
the Saudis are famous in Yemen for building sex-forts and not much else especially in the area of military wins. Like someone said the Turks will go through the Saudis like wind through the trees and not even notice.
The reason Mattis left is because he knows that - even though we have only a marginal national interest in the area now - in time those ME forces will once again come after the US as they did on 911. Only by being there do we keep a lid on things while making friends.
Leaving is abandoning allies to the jaws of their deadly enemies - whatever trust the US had rebuilt under DJT is now gone. Mattis likely feels that this abandonment is akin to leaving a soldier behind and it sickens him.