In comments surrounding a cabinet meeting Wednesday, President Trump reiterated his stance on withdrawing from Syria, saying the country was lost a long time ago, and the US is getting out. He added that Syria doesn’t have “vast wealth,” only “sand and death.”
Trump went on to say that he has not set any official timetable for the
US withdrawal, and that the times being talked about elsewhere didn’t
come from him. This started weeks ago with talk of a 30 day drawdown,
and has since been in the four month range.
CNN claimed that the four month figure came from the Pentagon, with an unnamed official saying it was the military “trying to please the President and not get everyone killed.” He added that the Pentagon should keep troops in Syria even longer.
This of course, is all in keeping with the narrative among the Pentagon
brass, most of whom never wanted to leave Syria at all. The idea that it
would take four months minimum to remove 2,000 troops from eastern
Syria, however, does not make a lot of sense.
After all, while Syria isn’t exactly awash in infrastructure, the US has
spent the last couple of years setting up small airfields, and its
troops in Syria are generally not far from these, nor from the borders
of friendly countries like Iraq and Jordan.
Though exact troop locations aren’t publicly available, all indications
are that US troops embedded in the Kurdish YPG’s territory are in places
specifically chosen so they wouldn’t get “stuck” there, and the idea
that they physically can’t get out for months without everyone dying is
an invention long after the fact to try to keep the war going.
Well, the “sand” part may be true, but the “death” part had a LOT to do with the US and regime change madness.
At least he’s smart enough to realize it was always about extracting wealth via stealing natural resources.
Why you would even repeat CNN is beyond me. PLEASE ignore them and help hasten their long overdue death as well as ALL other cable networks.
While the US could certainly get a mere 2,000 people out of airbases a lot faster, there is also weapons, ammo, equipment, and supplies to consider. The US no doubt heaped such things up in its little bases, handy to use or pass out. Leaving all that to whoever wanders in to pick it up may not be desirable, and moving it all would take some time. Those were after all bases, meant to support our proxies, and they’ve got what such bases would need.
Also, there is the pure bad faith element of replacing troops with contractors. That may not be Trump’s idea, but the people doing such things may not be asking him either. How much does Trump really know anyway, and who is left who would tell him?
All of that could be done easily in thirty days if they seriously wanted to do it. And most of the troops could be removed within days with a small contingent left behind to take care of the equipment removal. And if the troops were in real danger, they could remove them and leave the equipment behind. We’ve already saturated the entire region with weaponry so it’s not like we care who ends up toting our s**t.
I’ve seen the force characterized as either one or two Marine artillery batteries, so depending on how they’re organized, 6-16 155mm howitzers. They can be moved by helicopter (CH-53, CH-47, or UH-60 and presumably its naval SH-60/MH-60 counterpart, possibly others), and probably by the C-2 Greyhound.
To put it a different way, moving the big guns from the ground in Syria to a carrier deck in the Mediterranean would be a single day’s work if there was any sense of urgency to the matter, and their crews, support personnel, light weapons, etc. wouldn’t take much longer than that if any. Blow the ammo in place and its done.
When I was in the army in ’75 we moved an entire brigade from Ft. Lewis, Washington to Ft. Bliss, Texas for desert training. The whole move and back tool less than the 30 days.
Those modern shells cost $140ooo a piece first couple years, guess they might run $100ooo about now.
Yep. And unless they’re being overrun or something, chances are they’ll be deemed “degraded in likely quality/accuracy” from exposure to the elements and destroyed rather than packed for shipment back home. That way “defense contractors” get a bonus payday.
The Marine Corps blew up 110,000 tons of ordnance from the ammo supply depot I was guarding in Saudi Arabia rather than bring the stuff back. And that was after they gave my unit a bunch of crap (including 400 LAAW rockets) to go shoot off in the desert “as long as you don’t bring it back.” They didn’t give us any warning, either — the explosion collapsed my house, and I assumed for about two minutes (until they bothered to tell us what had happened) that the supply depot had exploded and that my men were dead on their posts around it.
Syria does have a decent port facility on the Mediterranean run and protected by the Russian Navy and Army. That helps.
Withdrawal from Afghanistan which is landlocked and without a “friendly sea” nearby will be more difficult and more costly.
“Not talking about vast wealth” – like, umm, Afghanistan?
He wants to get out of there too, and most Americans support that.
The neocons have four months to change Trump’s mind. Let’s see what actually happens.
“The neocons have four months to change Trump’s mind. Let’s see what actually happens.”
Or in other words, fund raise, but I agree.
That can can be said for the entire middle east thank to US, israel, and saudia arabia being allowed to do as they please.
But yes, let’s turn this into more than words and actually get out.
Ever since the Crusades some European countries, especially France continued to be involved in that Northern region. Like Israel it is a potentially useful beachhead for the oil-rich ME. Russia has obviously replaced France.
Today a considerable portion of Syria looks like Cologne when I passed through it in 1947. I doubt that Trump will offer a Marshall-type of help to Syria to repair and rebuild even though that is necessary for ME stability.
There is an oft-repeated misunderstanding about ISIS. The caliph and his followers swore death to all “ungodly rulers” of the ME and that included the King of Saudi Arabia. For ISIS they and not our presidents were the despoilers of Islam.
They managed to get the troops out of Vietnam in a few days, used helicopters from the embassy roof. Really just a question of motivation. Right now we have Trump with “hey everybody back on the bus” and the powers that be who are still protecting Germany from the Nazis. We don’t do withdrawal very well at all. Four months is a more than reasonable amount of time. Blow up what you don’t take (ohh opportunity for private sale) put it on eBay give it to a trusted “moderate” (make sure it isn’t loaded).
And Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and god knows what other countries in the middle east we currently “occupy,” are what….the garden of eden??
“In the Mideast, everybody lies.” – Bibi Satanyahu, the Trump Whisperer
Yeah, everybody lies, Thomas, but the most prolific liar is Bibzy Nutty&Yahoo himself. Every word he utters is a lie .. he lies even to his own citizens in Israel.
Trump shouldn’t even listen to Nutty&Yahoo’s lies, much less, believe them .. he’s a fool to do so. Just withdraw those 2,000 US troops who are illegally in Syria ASAP. If Nutty&Yahoo objects, just tell him you don’t want them being brought home in coffins .. 20,000 battle hardened Syrian army forces are moving into the area wherein the small US force is located, and they want all 2,000 of them gone.
Syria’s value has always been more about it’s strategic value, particularly in regards to Iran and Russia, than it’s actual resources. Trump’s thought process on the matter, if you can call it that, really does highlight the chief difference between him and the neocons.
The neocons are focused on the long term goal of global primacy which can best be accomplished by destroying Russia and thus splitting the Eurasian land mass. Trump on the other hand is all about what he can get right now. He wants Iran destroyed because of whatever the f**k Bibi and MBS offered him for the job. Now he wants to throw the Kurds beneath the train because of whatever the f**k Erdogan offered him. The man is a mercenary with ADD. He’ll go with who ever’s got the best deal right now, regardless of the consequences long term.
The longer he shelves this pullout, the higher the odds are that the Pentagon, the Saudis, and/or Israel can give him a better offer to stick to the neocon domino plan (first Syria then Iran then Russia). Trump is as fickle as he is impulsive. This makes him at least as high a risk for war as he is for peace, likely more the prior than the latter. After all, as Megadeath put it, “Peace sells but who’s buying?” The short term big bucks have always been in blowing sh*t up and then putting it back together.
They could hoping Trump might not be around in 4 months.
They wouldn’t be the only ones.
I am not crazy about the man but he is gut right about this one.
Time for a scheduled Assad gas attack on a hospital or orphanage.
Who knows what the truth is. Somehow, I do not not believe that hardware and logistics are the problem.
Looking at the oddity of the region US has occupied in Syria, it strikes me that THERE IS NOBODY to step into the vacuum. It will take time. Why is this a problem? Kurds do not have population centers outside Kobane area — to set up a local governance without YPG. Now, YPG is ruling towns and villages through military councils, and local Arabs are running local governance after they swore allegiance to YPG. US kept such small YPG units in power, as local Arabs could not rebel for fear of bombing them as “ISIS”. It happened many times. US even bombed Syrian army positions for endangering SDF, even though SDF in reality is YPG, and in Deir Azzor there are practically no Kurds. In fact, US has large air coverage, and sparse YPG on the ground, with US forces in small bases prividing intelligence, training, arms and political craft in support of Kurds.
Which means — cannot leave until small Kurdish units are gone out of Arab areas back home to Kobane region — or else Arabs seething with anger would take revenge for abuses suffered under YPG military. But if Kurds leave, Arab region will want to reconnect to free Syria, and end isolation. Those Arabs in US controlled area are not uninformed. They saw what they never thought would see — UAE and Bahrein opening embassies in Damascus, presidents of Arab states visiting, Arab countries delegations on all levels meeting with Syrian counterparts, interviews with Assad in Kuweit media — praising Asad as brave man. Bahrein foreign minister taking a lead in the diplomacy of embracing his Syrian counterpart, a highly symbolic and emotional move by Bahrein Sunni rulers — indicating brotherly love for Shia Assad Syria. Considering the state kf lockdown for its 80% Shia population, this is extraordinary. This breaks the tabu of even being able to talk about Assad. Bahrein was using Iran scaremongering to explain the restlessness of its Shia majority populatikn. No more. By getting involved in a positive way, the narrative is over. This could not have happened without Saudi permission — as Saudi Arabia has sent its military to protect ruling Sunni monarchy against manority population.
With changes happening fast — and reconstruction being planned, refugees are lressing to come back. Neighboring countries will pay to help returns.
But in US controlled area — who will bein charge? The most logical proocess would be for Syrian government forces to move in with Russian help. YPG should withdraw and disarm, and Kurdish regions to return to status quo ante under Damascus rule. That would make Turkish ouster of YPG unnecessary, as well as the need for occupation.
But this scenario will not be palatable to US. Other then Turkey — US cannot find takers to take over the region that would be acceptable or willing. So, unless US hopes to find some other country to cover the territory — and protect Kurds, against Turkey’s explicit objections — what are alternatives? Perhaps, as US and YPG slowly withdraw, and Turkey takes over, it is hard to imagine how can this handshake occur?