While the US has finished evacuating its first military warehouse
in Syria as part of the pullout from the country, some of the top
Republican senators condemning the idea are claiming that progress has
been made in getting President Trump to scrap the idea.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says that Trump has promised him that US troops will “stay and finish the job” in Syria, and that the withdrawal would only happen after the destruction of ISIS.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was a bit less upbeat, but claimed that senators
had been successful in convincing President Trump to slow the pace of
the withdrawal. He insisted leaving Syria is “morally wrong.”
This comes immediately following reports from commanders that there is
no established timetable, and that the withdrawal could take “several months.”
This was already dialing back expectations, as early reports suggested
the US could be trying to be out of Syria within 30 days.
Any change in plans is likely to impact US-Turkey relations, as Turkey
is poised to start an offensive against Kurdish territory, and the US is
expected to be gone from those areas when they get there.
The last president to end of war was Nixon. He resigned to avoid impeachment.
He wasn’t about to get impeached for ending the war.
True, but he lost the support of much of the military.
No, not Nixon, the Case-church ammendment in a congressional spending bill, ended US direct action in the war. Nixon would have been giggly bombing whatever he could otherwise.
The important part started with Kissinger’s sleight-of-hand in 1973 – making US think we had won and getting the POWs back. Probably the only way it could have ended after that many US troops had died. Only a little less difficult for Trump with ‘just a few thousand’ dead. His Sec of Defense quits and his former Chief/Staff and Gen. criticizes his decision to take 2-4000 troops out of Syria.
With the Kurds allegedly repositioned east of the Euprhates, its possible that rather than a full withdrawal, the U.S. has worked out a deal to roll back American Kurdistan along with them.
This is what Turkey’s red line demand was in the first place; its just a question of who gets to keep Manbij; the Syrians or the Turks.
The fate of Al Tanf should also be in question, and there isn’t much talk of what’s happening there.
https://www.washingtonpost. com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/08/24/turkeys-syria-offensive-is-as-much-about-the-kurds-as-isis/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.50db23283854
https://www.zerohedge. com/news/2018-12-30/land-swap-between-turkey-and-syria-being-brokered-russia
A full and immediate pullout seems to have run into significant political opposition as the implications sink in. Its possible Senator Lindsay Graham reminded Trump that the Republican Senate may not be as opposed to his impeachment by Congresional Dems as they once were if he goes through with this.
Pathetic RINOs. Just as bad as the imperial faux Progressives of the Dems.
Flip- flop in chief does his trade mark 180 yet again, who would have guessed?
30 minutes later YPG immediately revoked or denied all together their “invitation” to the Syrian national army SAA to protect the borders which means that ziocon warhawks will make sure that US can stay indefinitely, that Turkey occupies the area, instead of returning it to Syria, even if that means that soldiers are put to risk and that their YPG pets gets slaughtered to the last man.
Only problem for the Americans with this is that the Arab insurgency from within the landlocked US occupation will increase (remember that the kurds are a minority, originally refugees from Turkey, that only inhabits two towns in the area, Afrin (ain al Arab until US changed the name) which they ethically cleansed from Arab Syrians and Manbij, both up north bordering Turkey.) Tens of thousands of PMU militias just outside in Iraq, Hezbollah and NDF forces will turn up the heat on the 5000 US troops, merc’s and contractors and make sure they have a very unpleasant stay.
I hope no one is surprised to learn that the Don was lying about the withdrawal.
Surprised? No. Disappointed? Yes. There is still some hope but it’s fleeting rapidly.
To quote Huey from the Boondocks, “Everybody wants to believe in miracles at Christmas, even me.”
Hopefully Turkey will set a hard but reasonable deadline, the US will be fully out, Syrian forces will be fully in position, and Turkey will think twice about a ground invasion.
This is a Foreign Policy battle between American patriots and the illegally unregistered AIPAC Israel lobby. Israel (not Russia, LOL) has been in firm control of America’s Middle Eastern Foreign Policy then along comes Trump with his “bull in the china shop” administration. All bets are off, will Israel win again over the protests of American Patriots? Probably so.
I’ll take a stab at what may be occurring. The 3000 marines are a 155 artillery unit, logistics (piles of shells) and security. Likely, trump was briefed that after firing 40ooo shells since 2017 when they were deployed, the unit had no rational (even in military standards) targets left, and that the stockpile of shells would be a disaster to lose, as IED explosives. Hence, the evacuation of material in the article. The big trump brain interpreted the briefing as, “we recommend withdrawal from Syria”, and now the generals are attempting to explain to him that that is not what they recommended at all. As the president so often states, as policy, we’ll see what happens.
trumpster is stringing them along, there’s not going to be anything but a full withdrawal, with of course a back up at the two new US bases near the Syrian-Iraqi border…..
p.s. Rubio and graham are the two of the biggest war mongers in the US senate and should be on trial themselves for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity
The intelligence agencies run this country. The president has no say in anything especially foreign policy.