From a White House statement to death on the streets. It has been a fast and distressing week in Syria

To those of us who have been following the civil war since early 2011, it has been a momentous week

Flames rise from burnt cars in the north of the country (AP)

A coolly distant White House missive last Sunday evening, informing that the US would neither condone or condemn a Turkish invasion of Syria, very soon had on-the-ground ramifications.

By Wednesday, Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring” had begun, and Syria’s nearly nine-year civil war was given a new chapter. Donald Trump’s apparently ill-thought out decision – following a phone call with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan – was quickly and widely torn apart, by friends and enemies alike.

Former military generals, key Republican supporters – including Lindsey Graham – foreign governments and Trump’s own former Isis envoy were unanimous in decrying Trump’s effective greenlighting of Turkey’s longed-for incursion into Syria as a needlessly dangerous move. It was a decision, everyone seemed to believe, with no discernible positive outcomes at all.