The US bureaucratic cadre is not as rational as you think it is. They used to be, but not anymore.
They will poke and prod and provoke until their will is done.
Do you remember when Turkey finally moved on the american controlled east?
Just before Turkiye went in the western media ramped up their typical Orwellian campaign of Turks looking to commit genocide on the kurds. Trump wrote a letter basically threatening Turkiye that should we move that they will attack us. An american general even openly said that Turkish assets will become legitimate targets for the american military, meaning they would kill our soldiers to protect pkk marxist terrorists.
What happened?
The best thing erdogan ever did was he threw the letter in the bin and moved on eastern syria, it would have been better had he wiped his arse with it before hand. Anyway, we moved and what happened the americans pulled away but not before giving those positions to the Russians.
Why did the americans have to leave? They had to leave because any military skirmish with Turkiye ends their pesense in Turkiye, all their bases are closed down and Turkiye says goodbye to NATO. In return the americans are stuck in a landlocked part of syria protecting a terrorist entity that no nation in the region likes. Also having lost Turkiye completely Turkiye would become super aggressive in targeting all PKK entities, we would have no choice its life or death now. Americans cannot protect them in the region. So the PKK project is dead and the american position in the middle east is crippled. I could go on and on and on.
Now had the Russians already been removed from syria, the americans could not have given control of that land over to them, they would of had to leave and Turkiye would have taken control.
So like i said target the Russians remove the weak link and the pkk house of cards will fall apart in Syria. But to do this you need a leader with balls and commitment.