Pentagon officials say that their existing plans to withdraw all US troops from Syria are continuing to be advanced, in keeping with a White House directive from December. They added that there has been no change since then.
Officials seemed particularly to want to stress this after John Bolton’s
statements over the weekend suggested that the pullout was conditional
on a series of goal. One defense official was quoted as saying “we don’t
take orders from Bolton.”
Which isn’t to say that they’re not adapting at all, despite the claims
that there is “no change.” Officials are reportedly prioritizing staging
equipment for the withdrawal right now instead of removing anybody,
perhaps anticipating future changes.
The Pentagon was said to be opposed to withdrawing US troops from Syria
since the December announcement. The exact timeline isn’t clear, but
most reports suggest the withdrawal will happen within the next four
months.
I bet Bolton pushing for staying is motivating them to get out. Doubt they like the chickenhawk all that much. He is working hard to get a lot of them killed in Iran.
*Fistpump*
“we don’t take orders from Bolton.”
Would be nice to see a cadre actually adhering to the Syrian directive.
They’d better be quicker on the draw when push comes to shove.
C’mon folks! I guess most of you are too young to remember Beltway and Pentagon doublespeak after Nixon announced US withdrawal from Vietnam in May 1969. That took five years after Nixon escalated the war into the most massive bombing campaign in human against North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and land invasions of Laos and Cambodia and defoliation of mostof South Vietnam. Trump, Bolton, Pompeo, the generals are all liars, just like their predecessors. Pay no attention to what they say they are gonna do. Just keep the pressure every US boot is out, every US base in the ME closed and the fleet and the air force return to the homeland.
The generals are united with Trump, the Neocons and the Congressional leadership and are preparing for a regime-changing war against Iran that will envelope the entire Mideast unless they can overthrow the current regime by black ops. .
The reluctance to withdraw 2,000 soliders immediately is entirely due to politics, not logistics. Do not be fooled.
.
Agreed, how many times will people fall for the conflation of tactics and goals before they get it ??
Syria is and has been a buffer zone and ally for both Russia and Iran and that’s why it had to be largely destroyed and or depleted before the big shift into re-colonizing Iran and then on to regime change in Russia.
All this bread and circus portrayed by the circus clowns means nothing. None of them are smart enough to do much more than really poor acting.
I really don’t think there is one divine plan here. This incoherence in Syria is only weakening our position on Iran. I think Trump may have chewed through his leash and gone rogue, making some kind of deal with Erdogan before realizing that this jeopardizes the deals he already made with Bibi and MBS. I think Trump’s ugly marriage with the neocons may be imploding.
This doesn’t mean we’re leaving Syria. There are too many forces stacked against the withdrawal. Even if Trump goes through with it, I believe his plan is to outsource the occupation to NATO via Turkey. Kind of like our genocide by proxy in Yemen. The good news here is that the indecision on the nature of the pull-out may give Rojava enough time to make peace with Assad and get protection from Russia. This would be devastating to the imperial project in the region.
Jesus! Will somebody just fire Bolton, already. Better yet, drop him off in the desert and leave him to the wolves he aided and abetted under Bush. He loves war so damn much, it’s high time he experienced the magic first hand. “Nut up, push-broom. It’s gut check time.”