I got a copy of Bolton's book.

He was against the #Syria withdrawal, but the Kurdish YPG: "Why we were affiliated with one terrorist group in order to destroy another stemmed from Obama's failure to see Iran was a much more serious threat, now and in the future."

However, he continues: "It was complicated, but what was not complicated was the strong US sense of loyalty to Kurds who had fought with us against ISIS"

Bolton supported keeping troops at Al-Tanf on the Syria-Iraq border to fight Iran:

"Surprisingly, Mattis was skeptical of At Tanf's worth, probably because he was foused on ISIS rather than Iran. Iran was my main concern, and I stayed firm on At Tanf"

Bolton on why the U.S. didn't withdraw from Syria in January 2019: "Trump understood he was getting mauled by media coverage of the Syria withdrawal"

Bolton seems to support Turkey taking over from U.S. forces and the YPG: "We concluded it was not wise to set a deadline for withdrawal but stressed it should 'orderly.' The Turkish military provided a potential lifeline in that regard."

Bolton says that the moment that "saved the U.S. military presence in Syria" in January 2019 was when his commanders told him they could "knock the shit out of [ISIS] on the way out."

Bolton: Trump closed a January meeting at Al Asad airbase by "saying he wanted a 'vicious withdrawal' from Syria" but saw U.S. forces in Iraq as a "lynchpin" against Iran.

Bolton says Gen. Dunford wanted in January 2019 to create a "NATO-based monitoring force" to fill in after the U.S. left Syria, a preview of the safe zone later rolled out in summer 2019.

Pompeo told Bolton that U.S. special envoy James Jeffrey "had no love lost for the Kurds, and still saw Turkey as a reliable NATO partner." Bolton calls this "a chronic State Department affliction where the foreign perspective becomes more important than that of the U.S."

Now we get to the part reported by @WashingtonPoint https://ahvalnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/ahvalnews.com/bolton-exclusives/bolton-exclusives-4-erdogan-doesnt-care-about-isis-trump-tells-bolton?amp

Pompeo added to Dunford's idea of a NATO-led safe zone in northeast Syria by promosing "others in the region" come in.

"The Arab states had no love for Turkey, and they had financial resources," Bolton writes.

Bolton: "All these negotiations about our role in Syria were complicated by Trump's constant desire to call Assad on U.S. hostages, which Pompeo and I thought undesireable."

Bolton: Lindsey Graham had "good relations" with Erdoğan and volunteered to help sell him on the safe zone idea.