The White House has issued a statement this week calling on Congress to grant President Trump unilateral legal authority to open new military bases in both Iraq and Syria, as well as to renovate existing facilities. Officials say the bases would be purely temporary in nature.
What “temporary” actually means however is unclear, particularly in Iraq where the Pentagon has been very public about the idea that they intend to keep US ground troops in Iraq more or less forever. Those bases, then, are going to be open-ended facilities for an open-ended mission.
The White House says that the current lack of unilateral authority is limiting “maneuverability” as they continue their military buildup in the region, Though the statement was initially aimed at getting the authority included in the NDAA, it does not appear that the House version made any such revisions.
The establishment of bases, particularly in Syria, could be risky, since the US doesn’t have any permission from the Syrian government to be there in the first place, and the appearance of the Pentagon laying down roots, however temporary they claim them to do, could be very provocative to Syria, and its allies like Russia.
The limits were initially put in place in 2008’s NDAA, and Congress has reaffirmed those limits repeatedly since then, aiming to limit the amount the US was spending on nation-building in Iraq.
The USA needs to be careful. The Syrian Arab Army with partners like Russia Hezbollah, and Iran is becoming a powerful force. The regime change tactics of infiltrating mercenaries and arming fanatics no longer work.
Americans may think enlisting the Sunni’s and Wahhabi’s will turn the tide but it hasn’t in the last 400 years.
They’ve enlisted the Kurds.
According to Pepe Escobar further deals have been made; “The New Silk Roads Will Go Through Syria” (Asia Times July 13, 2017) posits the Golan Heights have been swapped for Crimea, Turkey gets s patcjh of northern Syria to keep the Kurds split and the U.S. gets to keep a peacekeeping force in South Syria..
Its doubtful that Russia would go for such a spineless deal though.
Russians are expedient more than anything else. I think they pragmatically play along.
Without a counterstroke?
Of course, Team Trump (minus Jerod) is playing at a higher level than Team O-Kablama. Putin may not have been prepared for competently executed incompetence.
This will be ignored by the Trump supporters and we will be reminded that Trump said we were lied into the Iraq war and “Why can’t we get along with Russia”? Everything this Bozo does is ignored and blamed on the “deep state”.
+1 for using the word Bozo
Except, the Deep State is responsible and Trump’s bozo moves are not appreciated by Trumpians.
The U.S. has ceased to be a functioning democracy, but blame must go where it belongs.
That the Presidency has been reduced to a scapegoat system where negative emotions are carried off by the goat in the Oval Office must be rejected.
Note that Trump himself is deferring to legal obligations (at least to U.S. law) and not acting as arbitrarily as the Pentagon and Deep State are. His call for the removal of restrictions, are also a public reminder to those that think otherwise, that there are restrictions.
Of course Congress tends to be pretty spineless in meeting its Constitutional obligations.
Quite right and insightful.
Quite shallow and wooden.
This coming from a guy who wants to vaporize an entire country and wants to burn humans in cages. Go away troll.
Dude, I have my own opinions. I don’t allow myself to be button-holed like everyone else. Yes, vaporize NK, US get out of Syria, and burn ISIS and al Sham in cages. Smash deep state. Indeed.
“Yes vaporize NK” Nothing more to be said.
No prob.
The US has used “temporary” buildings and bases inside the US for a century each. In a sense, all foreign bases are temporary, just some a lot more long lasting temporary.
English is such a flexible language.
$696 Billion dollar defense bill. My question is how much for education? How much for health care? How much for infrastructure? How much for the THIEVES in government. Frankly as far as I am concerned, the ones who voted for this bill can pay for the bases as well as the military. I for one am tired of supporting AMERICAN TERRORISM! I want the USA government, corporations, and Defense put on trial for TREASON & TERRORISM! F**K you on using my tax dollars for TERRORISM. I am not a TERRORIST and do not support TERRORISM. That would be my POS government! When is the world going to stop being such COWARDS? Too scared to go up against the USA. COWARDS! PROVE ME WRONG!
There is NO DEFENSE. All is for aggression. The USA is not in existential danger (more’s the pity for the rest of us) and it would be more secure if it used the taxpayers’ funds for positive causes which is studiously avoids doing.
So you know the 800 billion they are taking from Medicaid to gut public health care is over the next 10 years, in other words 80 billion per year. The Pentagon’s 696 billion PER YEAR does not account for ongoing wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, ect as those are special appropiations requested from congress on a per case basis. Like the 54 billion Trump authorized for the military his first week in office as payback for stealing the elections for him. This does not include the domestic components of the military such as CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI, police, ATF, Border, Homeland, ect…and does not account for black budgets (partially paid by drug smuggling). We spend officially 65% of all our discretionary spending on the military. These are the same people who tell us there’s no money for health care , education, environment, arts, ect…only for death, destruction, and mayhem…This is the kingdom of Satan.
You are definitely preaching to the choir. Clearly you see as I do in this country. We are TOTALLY F**KED!
legal authority to open new military bases in Syria? wtf?
Trump is really getting into his stride of avoiding foreign entanglements.
What could possibly go wrong>???
Trump arbitrarily pulls out of the mess Obama started and the Deep State gives Trump the Kennedy treatment for doing so, then ensures Trump’s successor plunges right back in.
Maybe I forgot some history, but how does Kennedy get into this?
JFK is popularly perceived as the last president to ever challenge the prerogatives of the U.S. Deep State. Most focus is on Executive Order 11110, which allowed the U.S. Treasury to print money direct, rather then issue debt via the Federal Reserve.
Recent revelations also indicate that rather then face down Kruschev during the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy made a deal to withdraw American missiles from Turkey in exchange for a Soviet missile withdrawal from Cuba.
And of course there Kennedy’s vetoing of Operation Northwoods, planning of which continued anyway and probably would have make Kennedy very angry had he lived long enough to discover that. Northwoods was a plot by the Joint Chiefs to murder American citizens in a false flag attack that would be attributed to Cuban and foster pretext for an invasion.
A lot went on between Kennedy and the Deep State, and it can be written off as conspiracy theory if desired, but nowadays the conspiracy theory meme is a lame duck thought control tool; too many conspiracies have turned out to be conspiracy facts.
The snowflake left is already making making jokes about assassinating Trump; when Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp start making crack about assassinating a sitting U.S. President, there’s something wrong; its like they’re hoping to trigger some lunatic into going after Trump. Of course, if it happens, there will have been enough public expectation seeded to reduce the destabilizing effects of widespread public shock.
The real threat comes in 2020, when the so-called curse of Tippcanoe comes into play. Only President Reagan and President Shrub have ever beaten the 20-year presidential assassination curse.
Reagan’s escape was attributed to fortuitous astronomy; closer to reality his driver ignored official plans to evac to a U.S. government hospital and instead went to the nearest municipal hospital, which at the time the Deep State might not have been expecting or prepared for.
Shrub escaped on a technicality in the wording of the curse; he wasn’t elected President, but appointed by the courts. Al Gore would probably have won on a recount and been the duly elected President. Closer to reality, the Deep State got the President it preferred and there was no reason to assassinate him.
Recalling Kennedy recalls a lot of baggage, but basically says the Deep State is a problem as they are not above killing whomever they want, even the POTUS, to achieve their objectives. Kennedy was probably the last U.S. President to govern with the illusion of being fully in charge and representing The People, not the tool of an oligarchy.
Anyone willing to show us all, where within the CONstitution it grants any such authority? NO?? didn’t think so!
Last time I looked the Feds were granted a few acres in a Maryland swamp. Everything else is theft.
Its in the ‘War Powers Clause” otherwise known as Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, “[The Congress shall have Power…] To declare War, grant letters pf Marque and Reprisial, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water…”.
Bases in Syria would clearly be captures on land. Note however, that Trump is not unilaterally assuming the authority to do so, while it was Obama who first sent troops into Syria without Congressional approval.
Congress more or less waffled on the use of military force against Syria in 2013 when they refused to vote on the Syria Resolution, but also refused to censure Obama’s troop deployments and Trump’s expansion of those deployments.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/840ad8780c85e7cc58e5c56a62fbcab63bce701be49811e77465091c493d1178.gif
And the bullshit continues.
Until it dosen’t. History of empires. USSR. Dissolution.
The problem is the presstitute media doesn’t seem to understand that Syria is a sovereign nation and UN charter member in good standing and it is a complete violation of international and US law to have US troop in Syria without permission. The AUMF has been abused to the point where it is completely corrupted and must be eliminated, but congress is just a rubber-stamp operation for whatever corrupt money-bags ply them with money.
Donald, has Assad ask you to build this military base? If not how in the hell you think you can do it?
he needs the military to appease and mitigate neocons within his party and the democratic party all having to do with the ongoing uncovering of his collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 elections. He figures he can buy himself out of this mess by throwing money at the sectors that can either enforce the law or give him a pass. Then off course playing the Cookie monster card of terrorism to keep the news from reporting on his failures policy wise at home.