According to State Department officials, President Trump has recently abandoned his desire to “get out” of Syria and bring US troops home. He has signed a new strategy, which includes new military goals, and eliminates all timelines for removing troops from Syria.
US troops are in several parts of Syria, mostly in the Kurdish-held northeast. An estimated 2,200 US troops are in Syria, though official numbers are being withheld from the public. Special Envoy James Jeffrey said the old plan was to leave Syria by year’s end, but now the troops are committed to an “indefinitely extended” stay.
The new goals are substantial as well, with the US now focusing on forcing Iran out of Syria and “enduring defeat” for ISIS. Jeffrey says the US is “not in a hurry” and that Trump is now on board with this idea.
Pentagon officials have long presented the operation in Syria as more or less permanent, and have resisted all talk of pullout, including from President Trump. This mirrors their policy in Iraq, where US troops are similarly positioned in unknown numbers on a more or less permanent basis.
Trump, interestingly, has not commented on this fairly dramatic change in his position on US troops in Syria. It is unclear why Trump hasn’t spoken on the matter, but there is no sign such comments are coming in the near future.
This will be just like Lebanon in the 83. Handful of missiles will kill bunch of troops and force U.S to withdraw.
No way. If that happened it would be full blown regime change invasion time.
No it won’t. (1) Syria has Iran and Hezbollah support, (2) Russia (3) Lack of international support. Most importantly, will lead to WWIII.
Iran and particularly Hezbollah are the main reasons the U.S. wants to stay in Syria, and more or less formalized Cold War 1.0 v. Eurasia over that.
Kind of exciting to see history in the making.
But this isn’t your grandfather’s U.S anymore. We are outgunned, outnumbered and deplomaticlly isolated. Let’s be clear, there will be no Cold War broadcasted on the telly tomorrow night. This will result in a WWIII if not multi country warfare.
U.S doesn’t even have the stamina for a war, so wasteful, it makes Vientnam look like a cake walk.
Trump very much appears to understand how isolated the U.S. really is; he’s ‘attacked’ so-called allies and its pretty obvious they never stood with the U.S.. Even Canada seems to think the U.S. owes them ‘free trade’ advantages even if the U.S. suffers a bit by having such backdoors into the economy.
However, the U.S. is still an economic, tech, and cultural superpower. The legacy Cold War 1 conventional and nuclear military still has deterrent value; not being able to attack whomever whenever – being forced to be pragmatic – is not weakness.
The decision to take a stand economically (to rebuild from there) would be a supremely rational one, but the execution is marred by the more antagonistic Deep Statists pursing Imperial Hegemony. And/or Empire or Globalism or simply a return to power without noticing or caring the base upon which they fight upon is crumbling because their actions.
I’d agree but for the “kill a bunch of troops” thing you said. This isn’t 1983 when the troops were mere mortals. Every day is veterans day. Every single day.
No armed forces for that anymore, anywhere unless Israel is willing to do some serious bleeding.
The U.S. is threatening, or trying to threaten, global economic crash instead.
The timing feels all wrong though. The U.S. will suffer most when the bluff is called.
Reflection of Trump’s political weakness…
More like an outcome of America’s Deep State civil war seen playing out on social media.
Trump didn’t get into the White House without help.
American troops in Syria could prove to be useful fodder for an IDF false flag.
Yes, that’s a possibility, Harvey, this is why all US troops must be withdrawn from Syria ASAP; they weren’t invited, as was Russia, along with Iranian advisers and Hezbollah.
Israel (and the US/UK) is notorious for setting up false flags; they did it twice in Lebanon, murdering both US and French forces there. Reagan was smart to fully withdraw from Lebanon, as they didn’t belong there in the first place.
The Golan Heights belong to Syria, Israel has no legitimacy in that territory and must withdraw as well. Syria now has Russia and Hezbollah to drive the illegitimate IDF out of the Heights and back into Israel. This was Bibzy Satanyahoo’s doing, after the Zionist Entity had signed a peace treaty with Syria and returned the Golan Heights to that country a few decades ago.
As shown in this article, a recent Israeli media report on how Israel’s IDF was arming rebel groups in Syria’s Golan Heights was censored by the Israel Defense Forces:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-syrian-civil-war-and-israeli-media.html
It is most interesting to see how Israel’s armed forces has control over Israel’s media, using its power to kill a domestic story that wasn’t in its best interests and one that goes against the narrative of its alleged “Good Samaritan” program in the Golan.
In a surprising move, America’s State Dept. says that it might “punish” Syria by recognizing the Golan Heights as a permanent part of Israeli territory. Goes to show you that if you look long enough for an excuse – you’ll find one. Disgusting!
Richard, America’s State Dept. is now the CIA’s Pompeo. Everything he says is a lie. What is so surprising about this? He’s not looking for excuses, just doubling down, like all the neocons. He has no soul.
Thomas, any one who supports abortion, the killing of babies, has no “soul”, where do you fall?
What does abortion have to do with the topic at hand, Jay? Why don’t you get off your high horse and consider the fact that Trumpsters like you have been conned into thinking that he is the “peace” president who can do no wrong. Pompeo is an evil neocon snake who will happily lead us into WWIII if given a chance.
Trump dances around like an organ grinder’s monkey. You have to ask, who is the organ grinder? Bibi? Jared?
For the last 3 decades I have assumed that both the GOP and DNC nominated candidates were warmongers. I hoped to be wrong. I wasn’t.
He’s a Christian fascist.
Thomas, Bibi is the organ grinder, and he grinds for almost all of Washington DC, as Israel has for every President beginning with LBJ.
One who supports state sanctioned forced pregnancy also has no soul.
Dave, Does the State force a woman to get pregnant? When does a mother have a ‘right’ to kill their own baby, a separate life from their own. If you accept that, (abortion), than do not ever judge someone else as “having no soul”.
When does the state have the right determine family size or whether or not a raped women will have the baby of her rapist ? Let’s face it Jay, you’re pro birth and you also are a Christian fascist trying to enforce your Christian Sharia style law upon everyone else.
dave, hmm,,and what religion do you follow that supports the torture, then murder, of a baby in the Mothers womb,,, excluding the Democrat party,,,do tell….
What religion is too ignorant to understand banning abortion only bans it for poor women ?? Only the fascist Christians want to preserve abortion for the elites. What feudalist religion do you belong to Jay ?
Once again we see the forces of the Christian fascist trying to inflict their feudalist values upon the masses. Ban abortions, ban certain clothing, ban mosques, teach kids fairy tales we all know are complete bullshit designed to divide and control the masses………
Why are you even here Jay ? All you’re trying to do is secure a pool of poor kids to go die for Exxon Mobile and Goldman Sachs, the preferred instruments of the elite.
I’m not suffering from a “grand delusion” like you are Jay. I don’t follow any of the tooth fairy in the sky grand delusions….
Jay, if you believe abortion is murder, why are you not at war with the USA, and every other nation with abortion ? Why are you sitting at a computer ?
Mothers don’t have a right to kill their babies. A baby, according to Webster, is “an infant or very young child”. No state allows a mother to kill an infant or very young child, theirs or anyone else’s.
wars, while you may not even be aware of it, you are deceived and lost, but I think in time you will realize your grand delusion.
You are the one with the grand delusion. I, on the other hand, don’t believe in fairy tales.
wars, But you DO believe in the torture, then killing, of babies in the Mothers womb, that is no fairy tale!!
Actually you’re the one trying to drive poor women into coat hanger abortions in order to feed the war machine
Dave, so poor women need to kill their babies, safely!! LOL!!!!!
A baby is an infant or a young child. Is a zygote, embryo or an undeveloped fetus viable? No. Stop conflating.
You’re the on that believes in fairy tales, so why would you try to state other people are suffering from a grand delusion ??
“If you accept that, (abortion), than do not ever judge someone else as “having no soul”.
Who made you the judge ? Didn’t Jesus teach you not to judge others ? Why are you such a hypocrite Jay ?
Dave, it has been said that the greatest triumph of evil is abortion and war, because they corrupt over time all other morality, I concur. Where do you fall, Dave?
Please Jay, don’t think always of the unborn while killing those already trying to survive on this planet.
rosemerry, You are mistaken.
The UN recently reaffirmed Syrian sovereignty over Golan.
Don Bacon,
Thank-you for the facts – none of which mean a damn thing to some lunatic like Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo in the thrall of kissing Netanyahu’s butt.
So what if the US “recognizes” something that the “world community” says doesn’t exist? It doesn’t mean a damn thing.
Don Bacon,
When you spend a trillion dollars a year on a military that asks few questions, you can make something that “doesn’t mean a damn thing” into something that does.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Rove —————-The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore.” He continued “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” ========== There’s gold in them there heights !!!
All that dough couldn’t buy us victory in Vietnam or Iraq.
Nothing can buy it when the enemy is US.
I beg to differ. Kissing implies that the lips would sometimes be removed from said butt. Not in this case.
Its more like an extended sphincter-rinse… with continuous extensions.
It would only be recognizing the reality. Israel taketh and Israel keepeth,
What a stable genius way to disrupt the war party!
MAGA, no dual citizenship!!!
I second the motion.
Still waiting for the “peace president” to end one of the wars he inherited. Will have to wait until Monday to find out who is forcing poor Donald to do this.
wars, yes, Trump is not the President I thought he would be, but better than Hitlery. Now if only the “Deep State” would leave him alone and let him finish his term we can move on without splitting the country and causing potential mass blood shed. The Constitution and Bill Of Rights and secure borders must be enforced and rule of law followed,,or else……
Why is he better than Hitlery? War with Russia is just taking a little longer, we’d still be in Afghanistan, Yemen would be no different and his a** kissing of Bibi is on par with what the witch would have done. Other than the blame being put on the “Deep State”, I don’t see much difference.
No misssile or nuke tests in Korea, no “provocative” (Trump’s word) war games, TPP gone, 1 Summit meeting with Putin and one scheduled where nuclear weapons are on the agenda – a paramount question because there 3000 of them on hair trigger alert at the disposal of Russian and US “Doomsday Machines” which as Ellsberg points out are real not fictions.
The Deep State continues to sabotage Trump’s efforts as one of its denizens openly admits in the NYT’s op-ed page. That is what this statement from State reflects. No new wars yet. The surprise is that he has got this far.
So easy to say no difference – and so imbecilically wrong. But you can’t help it. You are told to think that way and it is an accepted part of the discourse among the Respectables.
Kim did test his nukes during Trumps time so it’s hard to say how Clinton would have reacted and how much different it would be. Kim had a huge bargaining chip that even the witch would have had to acknowledge. Regarding Putin and Russia, we’re arming the Nazi’s in Ukraine and, like this article said, we’re staying in Syria indefinitely. But since Trump met with Putin and scheduled another meeting, none of that matters, relations wise? We might be in a shooting war with them before the next summit takes place. And yes, “no new wars yet” although, like I stated, the old ones continue with escalation in both bombing raids and troop numbers. There aren’t many places left to start any new wars but Trump is trying to rectify that by following Bibi’s orders regarding Iran. As far as being told what to think I guess you’d have to blame anti-war.com for that.
wars, I will give you one of many, the USA does not need a number of ‘Royal Families’ taking turn at the Presidency, one of the reasons we had a revolution! Trump is a major breath of fresh air, even if he is not close to perfect. This is why he was elected!
But none of our ongoing wars have ended under his watch. They’ve escalated and have gotten deadlier. And now our presence in Syria could start a shooting war with Russia. Not to mention his continued boot licking of Bibi who despised Obama. How is that an improvement or a “major breath of fresh air”?
Except the only thing that has changed is the rhetoric used to justify even more commodification of life for the benefit of our new “Gods” the corporations.
Fresh air, fresh water, clean energy-nothing in the environment has improved under Trump, for any of us.
Why not split this over sized country up . We don’t agree on much of anything . The Soviet Union split up and every body is much happier there . I would be very happy to let there be a east coast country and a west coast country . We would still be three of the wealthiest countries in the world . Not near so likely to be a world bully [ which we are } and everybody should be a lot happier too .
Better to shut down the entire Federal government, replace it with nothing, just State and Municipal.
Let the civil war commence ! Or the Koch brothers ALEC run your state for you. Hell, it’s up and running already……
dave, you really are silly at times, I bet you just love antifa cowards running around with their faces all covered up. Maybe you are one, LOL!
“Trump is not the President I thought he would be, but better than Hitlery”
Indeed, Trump is not the president we hoped he would be. But why is that? Could it be that he has been obstructed by virtually everyone except the voters who elected him?
He said he wanted to get along with Russia, which generated opposition from the deep state, who need a permanent enemy to justify their pay checks.
He said he wanted to end the war in Afghanistan and Syria (after destroying ISIS), which generated opposition from ditto above.
He said he wanted a secure Southern border and an orderly immigration policy, which generated opposition from self-serving Democrats for reasons of identity politics (and stealthy big donor interests). And noisy unhelpfulness from Republicans for the benefit of same big donor interests who continue to enjoy the advantages of low-wage immigrant labor.
So yes Trump has not been the president we had hoped for, but that’s only because he’s still engaged in the political war to retake the country from the special interests, the real owners.
As to his sad and repugnant support for criminal Israel, well no one here on antiwar.com has any Illusions about the subversion of our country by the Zionists. And Trump is smart enough to know that he doesn’t want to take those folks on. So he won’t. The real question remains, “Will he go to war against Iran?” (…on behalf of the Israel firsters), or will he do every single thing on the Neocon wish list right up to that last step, and then draw the line, and refuse to take America into another catastrophic mid-east War?
I don’t think he will do it. I think he knows perfectly that that would be a catastrophe for the country and the end of his Presidency.
We shall see.
Jeffrey, You are correct!!! Go Trump 2020!
He wanted to get along with Russia but he wants to sell more arms to Ukraine and says Russia should give back Crimea. He wanted to get out of Afghanistan but he escalated instead, more bombs, more troops. He wanted to get out of Syria but he bombed “animal Assad” twice and now says we’re staying for keeps which makes a confrontation with Russia more possible. He’s beholden to the Zionists because he’s “smart enough” to know he “can’t take them on”. Either he’s a willing participant or he doesn’t have any balls and should resign in disgust.
Actually he hasn’t been obstructed in everything. But keep buying into that rebranded “hope and change” if you are that naive.
Trump still hasn’t started any new wars, however that’s possibly more a function of there being so few places left to invade hot.
Cold War 2.0 versus Eurasia is sort of new, though. It seems the Deep State has taken Trump’s claim that ‘Trade wars are easy to win’ too seriously.
However, the test shots were fired under Obama. The only thing new is that all Eurasia is targeted at once; the Eurasian majors; Iran, China, Turkey and Russia all under currency pressure, and the pin pulled on the U.S. debt bomb in emerging markets.
Apparently just to stay in Syria, from the looks of it.
I guess trump peace acolytes interpret “numbers withheld from the public” as, much less than 2200.
Economic warfare is far safer than hot warfare.
Also, hypocritical as it is, the U.S. claim that Idlib would be a bloodbath (on par with what they did in Raqqa) is not an unrealistic possibility; they can certainly arrange for it to be far harder for Russia and Syria to avoid civilian casualties.
Mackinder’s Eurasia was always an economic threat, that could in turn become a military threat.
Trump’s claim that trade wars are easy to win was not made lightly. The demand, however inappropriate, to remain in Syria is backed by the global economic warfare now being waged more than any real potential to intervene militarily.
Turkey, Iran and Russia are meeting in Tehran to discuss Idlib today. The U.S. is notably absent, at least officially.
I wonder if Trump might not have changed his entire agenda and is no longer a nationalist but is now willing to be a NWO global president . The reason I wanted all U.S. forces home . Was I believe they did a lot more damage than good where ever they went . The United states fought on the wrong side more often than not . The United States used the Jihadist { Islamic terrorists } to overthrow peaceful governments all over the world . The United States has had very bad foreign policy for many years . i’am totally sick of the U.S. governments foreign policy .
The globalist and nationalist agendas overlap where world empire is concerned; its only a matter of sorting out who gets to be in charge – like two eaglets in a nest.
Who is running the show the president or the pentagon ? I’am betting on the 4th grader president Donald Trump
The question is: how do US troops “force Iran to leave Syria”? The obvious answer – the only answer – is to militarily engage Iranian forces and use that as an excuse to attack Syria as well.
The problem in that answer is the same as it was before: Russia. Unless the US intends to sit in Syria until the bulk of Russian forces are gone, there is no way to US can achieve that objective. And the longer the US sits in Syria, the longer Russia will sit because Putin is not stupid enough to leave while the US remains.
And while Putin has no brief to protect Iranian forces in Syria, neither he nor Assad are going to sit by and let the US start another conflict inside Syria which threatens Syria. A few Israeli attacks on Iranian forces are irrelevant, and minor US attacks will be, too. But Russia and Syria won’t allow Syria to become another battleground. Either they will negotiate Iranian forces to leave or they will defend those forces as legitimately in Syria, as they are.
So this is just another lame attempt to get a war on Syria started, and it will fail just like the other plans due to the presence of Russia and its 7000 nuclear weapons that the US can’t defend against.
Answer: Inflict such economic pain on Iran and the world that Iran withdraws of its own accord if for no other reason than not being able to afford to remain.
Not really a great plan, but better than losing a hot shooting war against Russia.
Doubtful that would work. Iran has withstood decades of sanctions. Currently Trump wants to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero, but several countries who are major users of Iran’s oil have refused to go along. So it’s unlikely the US can cause enough economic pain to force Iran out.
Peace Train. Yeah!!!!!!
This whole administration including the Chump in chief is neocon to the bone.
The last US presidential election was 100% empire vs 99% empire. What a choice!
The same could be said of Obama, who was far more clearly elected on a peace ticket.
But I don’t remember the deep state being used as the reason he couldn’t be the peace president.
The USDS only made itself truly seen and heard on a sustained basis after the 2016 election when all its public proxies got Trumped in the dust. 9/11 was just a tease, then fade back to the shadows.
Obama knew his place, to sell whatever deals were arrived at behind closed doors with that intellectual charm of his. The Deep State never really came up except in the usual outlier circles who assumed Obama was a willing part of it all; there was no contrasting figure in the narrative to highlight the Deep State.
Since then its rather apparent that no matter who gets elected on a peace ticket – and Trump’s ticket was far from dovish – that ticket is going to be ripped to bits and tossed in their face.
And not even behind closed doors anymore. The Deep State seems to enjoy living outside the closet with Trump as their dire foil.
There is no “deep state.” What there is, is a massive conglomeration of government agencies all trying to line up at the trough. Bureaucracy. Defense contractors and the military need war, war, war, or they can’t afford their second home in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s just money and greed, not some Zionist cabal meeting in a secret room located behind the covered panel in the wine cellar.
… You just described the Deep State then said it doesn’t exist.
Oh well.
USA Committed to Permanent War Economy Since Inception
Trump continues to prove he’s a Zio puppet of Israel.
The following is worth noting in the report which Jason Ditz links to here:
“The new policy is we’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year,” said James Jeffrey, a retired senior Foreign Service officer who last month was named Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s ‘representative for Syria engagement.’….
“‘That means we are not in a hurry,’ he said. ASKED WHETHER TRUMP HAD SIGNED OFF ON WHAT HE CALLED ‘A MORE ACTIVE APPROACH,’ JEFFREY SAID, ‘I AM CONFIDENT THE PRESIDENT IS ON BOARD WITH THIS.’”
In other words, James Jeffrey would NOT say that Trump had “signed off” on it. So the headline is a bit misleading and the subhead is a bit more accurate – but still the headline conveys the wrong impression. Perhaps it would be better to say, “State Dept functionary contradicts Trump on Syria Policy.”
It is not hard to see the Deep State at work here undermining Trump. Maybe James Jeffrey is the author of the notorious op-ed by an admitted operative of the Deep State.
What the US has wanted for the last five years in Syria has been successfully countered by Syria and its allies, and there’s no reason to see any change in that in Syria. . .or anywhere else the US is trying unsuccessfully to exercise its “world leadership.”
More like the Deep State committed Trump to remaining in Syria. Screams of treason and being the President who ‘lost’ Syria wouldn’t look good in November, or so some might think.
Its not hard to imagine why the desperate hard line now; the MIC has turned Syria into another Iran insofar as their anti-humanitarian actions have all but lost the country except for the military occupation instigated under Obama. The secret ‘security’ meeting late August in Damascus between U.S. and Syrian officials obviously didn’t go down too well.
Cold War 2.0 v. Russia morphed quickly – too quickly – into Cold War Eurasia 1.0. Definitely not a winning hand if the raging economic war against Eurasia and the various emerging markets of its members and periphery comes down just to remain in Syria.
“Screams of treason and being the President who ‘lost’ Syria wouldn’t look good in November, or so some might think.”
That’s an interesting thought. I wonder if he might make some large changes immediately following the elections that he’s not willing to make just now.
Difficult to say; after the midterms there’s a very short window to act before the Presidential election.
Meeting with Kim Jong-un and President Putin were the highlights of the last ‘tween elections window, that and not starting new wars.
Those went down very well with Americans, even if most missed the no new wars part. But the Deep State went off the rails.
And this was with a putative ‘Trump’ House resistant to impeachment. A post-November House dominated by Democrats will hopefully be too busy trying to impeach Trump than push for new wars.
Actually, that window is precisely what I have in mind when I speculate that he may make big moves immediately following the midterm elections.
If he wants to be re-elected, he needs to deliver big-time to his base while simultaneously not completely driving away swing voters.
And needs those deliveries to have time to EITHER “succeed” (produce some of the results envisioned), in which case he doubles down, OR fail quickly enough that he has a little time to move on from the worst of them so that they’re not the top stories any more by Novemeber 2020
Think of the not-quite-60-days between the election in November and the next Congress taking its seats in January as sort of like the much-ballyhooed “first 100 days” of each presidency, minus the honeymoon. It’s a time when Congress is disorganized because some are leaving, while their replacements don’t yet have a vote and haven’t yet been integrated into their parties’ strategies.
If he does something “YUGE” on November 15, he has pretty much a month and a half before Congress can even really begin organizing to stop push back at him. And he has almost two years before any reaction to what he does registers in the voting booth.
Yes, Trump has failed to deliver on his promise to sideline foreign involvements and redirect those failed efforts to domestic priorities.
His actual base, the extremely wealthy who care about nothing at all besides gaining more wealth, already *got* their massive, economy crashing tax cuts.
A failure to affect regime change can’t be converted to losing the country, to any thinking person. It is still a failure, but not Trump’s failure so long as he is able to pin the failure on the previous administration and by implication on the Pentagon which has a well-deserved reputation of never succeeding at anything.
The “deep state” made him do it!
Or Trump’s foreign policy is incoherent, inconsistent, and made up as he blunders along.
I’ll believe the latter.
… Yet, nothing fundamentally changed in the American Empire. A faction of political progressives getting cut off from the top is part of the game.
Deep State in action. Or rather, momentum.
Sounds awful. But until something happens, there is little to worry about. Trump may be posturing for some kind of face-saving deal. Or maybe he’s just pretending to be tough in order to ward off the would-be impeachers.
We went through this with Obama in Afghanistan with his sending seventy thousand more troops, then backing out. “Tis better to try and fail than not to try at all, is the presidential way. They’re going to fail anyhow, but they must “try” is the routine. Can’t fault them for trying. He’s not the one actually doing anything, that’s up to others, and they fail.
Obama said Afghanistan was a good war during his campaign. Trump said we should leave Afghanistan during his campaign.
dog bites man…
So next-door neighbor Iran has to leave and distant unrelated bully stays forever. Sounds like real peace and harmony.
No surprise here, with the fake news on the offensive coming from the SOHR (the Coventry clothier) and other US/UK functionaries, who also refer to the White Helmets as “first responders.”
“Indefinite” means not sure what time the choppers arrive on the roof to evacuate that last outpost at al -Tanf.
Arms, banking, and logistics company stocks will surely rise tomorrow.