Having drifted back and forth a few times on the US withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan, President Trump seemed solid on leaving last week, but facing growing opposition from the Senate now shows signs of backtracking once again.
Previously talking up how the wars in Afghanistan and Syria can’t last forever, Trump is now saying he wants a “smaller number” of troops to stay in Afghanistan, despite the Taliban already making it clear that was a non-starter for the peace deal.
In Syria, Trump is now focused on the idea that the pullout can only happen after assuring that “Israel is protected,” which is as close to a recipe for permanent warfare as one can get. Israeli officials have made clear they want the war to be about Iran, not ISIS.
And that seems to be he case in Iraq, as well, where President Trump is now saying US troops will remain, seemingly forever, to “watch Iran,” and make sure they don’t “do nuclear weapons or other things.”
Even with the slow, indefinitely half-departures, Trump was very hesitant, emphasizing that the US troops can “come back if we have to.” It’s going to be very hard for the US to “come back,” however, if they never get around to leaving.
All of this never leaving is neatly in line with the stated positions of the Pentagon for years, but breaks wildly from President Trump’s recent talk of actually leaving some countries. The split seems to have coincided neatly with the Senate’s non-binding resolution expressing opposition to leaving either Syria or Afghanistan.
Though originally it seemed President Trump was going to stick to his guns on the matter, having already shrugged off opposition from within his administration, the pressure seems to be getting to him, and policy is slowly defaulting back to permanent wars with nebulous goals.
Why that is suddenly happening isn’t entirely clear, as the Pentagon’s outspoken opposition to ending wars seemed to do little but alienate Trump from former Defense Secretary James Mattis, and the other hawks in the administration failing in their own efforts to “walk back” the policy.
In the end, the weakness in Trump’s commitment to the pullout may reflect both Trump’s general lack of commitment to support the policy, and more importantly, his reluctance to clarify what the pullout policy actually is, or was, beyond the most broad strokes, allowing it to be revised on the fly.
Iraqis have made clear for a long time that they do not want to be used against Iran. They had enough of that when the US and friends used Saddam against Iran. They want nothing to do with this. Trump has stepped in it with this statement. The US has been at pains to deny the obvious, until Trump just blurted it out.
Good. This may be the only way we get out of Iraq, thrown out for misuse of our bases.
It seems like Iran is being a better friend to Iraq these days than the US. And Iran will be more reliable / consistent, as long as the US/Israel don’t invade Iran.
That isn’t going to happen. If Israel attacks Iran, it’ll be on its own. I agree that Iran’s being a better friend to Iraq these days than the US is .. and Iran will be more reliable/consistent, so long as the US/Israel don’t invade Iran.
That hasn’t worked in Japan, so I doubt it will work in Iraq. They’ve been trying to throw us out of Japan for years now due to all the rapes and other violence committed there.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Mark. I don’t blame the Iraqis one bit; they’ve made it quite clear for a long time they don’t want to be used against Iran .. they had enough of that when the US and friends used Saddam against Iran. The US has been at pains to deny the obvious, until Trump inadvertently blurted it out.
Fantastic. I agree this may be the only way we get out of Iraq, tossed out for misuse of our bases .. the sooner the better.
Having neither courage or convictions, Trump is an empty sack.
He’s trading policy for a sack full of cash after he rotates out and the new patsy rotates in. He won’t be an empty sack for long.
…of horse manure.
The only thing Donald Trump truly believes in is Donald Trump. Everything else can be sold to the highest bidder.
Trump really has no power or support. IMO he tweeted the Syria pullout because the Pentagon refused to follow his orders.
It’s the story of a con man conning everyone in order to convert himself from bribe maker to bribe taker.
The so-called deep state-if it really exists-had figured out that Trump is easily malleable even before he was elected president. Then what good is it when he makes his dovish statements?
America deserves Trump.
More click bait,
That’s not what he said, he hasn’t changed his mind on Syria or Afghanistan he was explaining why he thinks we need to stay in Iraq and even that was mostly a token gesture because what he didn’t say was that we already have sent home half the troops we had in Iraq during the ISIS war.
He did not say that he’s no longer planning on getting us out of Syria or Afghanistan. They supposedly just wiped out the last village held by ISIS in Syria and in Afghanistan talks are still moving forward. The only thing he said was that in Iraq he would like to keep a base and even that wasn’t exactly 100%. He was simply trying to assure our allies and Israel that he wasn’t being to precipitous, because that was the criticism he was getting from all sides, even many people who claim to be against the wars are saying he’s getting us out to fast and screwing our allies. All he was doing was trying to explain why we are getting out how we are getting out. He did not say we are no longer getting out. The guy was trying to get some political cover for his withdrawal plans and instead it’s spun into a flip flop, which it wasn’t.I swear that some people here at anti-war have zero understanding of political realities and how Trump was actually trying to sell his withdrawal plans!!
They guy goes on TV to try and sell the American Public on getting out of the wars and this is the headlines we get instead! Wow, just wow!
But this is apparently what the peanut gallery likes to hear, Trump Bad Man, that’s what’s fun to talk about, not the fact that all the “Trump Bad Man” crowd continues to be wrong. Look at the comments, one would think that Trump actually just announced that he isn’t getting out of Syria or Afghanistan or heading to North Korea again, etc. (I wonder where they would get that impression from?)
Thanks to some selective BS and a title that’s not actually representative of what he said it gives the Hate Trump crowd what they want, some confirmation for their bias, despite all the good news, they just want some bad news anyway.
What’s sad about this is that we should be encouraging Trump when he gets it right, instead anti-war is now in the fake news business in the same lousy way that Huffington Post does it. Click bait titles and selective reporting of what he said to make him seem as bad as possible doesn’t come across as legit journalism to me. Here we have an anti-war movement that seems to be far more happy to have war or to at least pretend that everything Trump says reflects more war, even when it doesn’t. Why is that? Does Hating on Trump get so many clicks that accuracy in reporting is no longer needed? Are titles just meant to grab attention instead of actually conveying what the article is about, even here? I thought anti-war was above the click bait crap, but apparently not and looking at the comments I can see why. They like to be miss-informed so long as it means they were right about Trump being a Bad Man.
“When asked whether he will keep a smaller number of troops in
Afghanistan, Trump said “yes”, but added that he will “leave
intelligence” there – in Afghanistan.”
Trump also indicated the US military installation would be useful for monitoring developments in the wider Middle East.
Trump lashes out at US spy chiefs over Iran, North Korea and ISIL (1:25)
“It’s perfectly situated for looking at all over different parts of
the troubled Middle East, rather than pulling up … We’re going to keep
watching and if there’s trouble, if somebody is looking to do nuclear
weapons or other things, we’re going to know it before they do.”
Your inverted TDS is getting rather funny to watch. But if you have to distract from the coup in Venezuela I guess this is the right non sequitur to start with.
I guess we’ll keep that military base without troops ?
If there’s any click bait in this thread it’s yours.
You may be able to delude yourself into thinking being there and leaving are the same thing, but you won’t convince anyone else with any brains.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-president-trump-on-face-the-nation-february-3-2019/
Here is a link to the actual interview, he is talking about getting us out and why we should get out. He’s explaining how we can leave without letting terrorism take hold and trying to get cover for his statement. If any other president had made these statements they would have been covered totally differently. Listen to his comments and then tell me that the Click Bait title was justified.
He said exactly what they reported he said, so how can it be click bait ?
The link is right there, people can listen and make up their own mind. He was not flip flopping in the least. You must NOT have actually watched it or you only hear what you want to hear. He spent most of that interview defending his decision to pull out.
One more time, he spent that interview defending his decisions to pull out, in no way shape or form does he say that he is not getting us out of Syria or that he isn’t trying to get us out of Afghanistan.
The interview was almost exactly the opposite from what the title made it sound like. That’s click bait for people who want to continue to believe “Trump Bad Man”. Nobody else would hear that interview for anything other than an explanation of why and how we are getting out. In fact if Obama ever gave an interview like that, the anti-war left in this country would be jumping for joy and declaring that Obama really did deserve his prize.
It’s written as well. And I heard and read him say he was keeping troops in Afghanistan….. Keeping troops in the country is not leaving.
It’s that simple.
No it’s not “Really that simple”. He was defending his decisions to get us out of there and again, everyone is free to watch the link I posted to his actual interview.
The title to this article should have read; Trump Defends pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan because that is exactly what he was doing in the interview. He said repeatedly that we need to get out and to end these “endless wars”.
Only a 100% bias mind would listen to that interview and hear something else. You listened to an interview where he says it’s time to get out and all you heard was, “We are staying”. Your filter is set on “block” and you block anything that doesn’t fit your bias. Apparently you are not alone.
What Trump has failed to do is firing the two traitors who’ve been undercutting his agenda of pulling all troops out of both Syria and Afghanistan – Bonkers Bolton and Pompous Pompass. As long as these two snakes are still in their posts as Nat. Security Adviser and Secretary of State, respectively, Trump will lose credibility whenever he speaks about withdrawing from both Syria and Afghanistan. Doesn’t he realize that? He must muster up the courage to oust those two; then, he’ll be able to go ahead and do what he said he’d do.
Look at the fight Trump is in now, imagine if he didn’t have hawks in his cabinet. Would it actually be easier to sell pulling out to the Senate and Intel hawks that oppose him, with hawks in his own admin or without them? I see these two as cover, same as his generals. Their presence somewhat mollifies the neo-cons and makes it harder to say that he’s being too soft, they are his “bad cops” and it works because they are bad guys. But, did you read Pompeo’s statement on Yemen (posted below and this was from a while back)? Compare it with Kerry. Who’s the hawk? And Yemen is the worst of his actions. Is the State Department under Pompeo doing a bad job in Afghanistan compared with our past few Sec. of State’s? Who about in North Korea. Leave the rhetoric out and he could go down as having been in charge while we get out of four wars. Now if you think he opposes getting out of the wars, then it certainly would be ironic to make either him or Bolten sign off on all of this wouldn’t it? https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/10/287018.htm
So again it really depends on how you look at it. Is Trump using them or are they using him? Since we see all of these actual concrete diplomatic measures going on, they are either on Trump’s side and helping him (by playing bad cop) or they are just talking heads who have no actual say in any of it or very little say. They might think that they are better off trying to “talk sense” into Trump than leaving and having no say. I don’t know, but I do know that the polices have changed for the better with the two of them there, so that’s a bit odd isn’t it? Well not really, not if you think Trump is just using them as his bad cop or as cover, etc..
Only a 100% biased mind would try to say staying in country is the same as leaving……
You can’t stay in the country and stay in the region while you use proxies to attack and destroy the same people and their country and say you’re leaving.
Your mental gymnastics are beyond comical at this point. It’s embarrassing to even have to point out to you how illogical your fantasy is that the peace president is stopping the ME wars by not leaving or stopping aggression.
So the Drumph is acting presidential again .. say the Libertards….
You’re a moron. How many establishment Republicans are backing Trump’s desire to pull the troops out of either Afghanistan or Syria? Few to none.
Chill out. Anyone knows that the Repugs are war mongers. They take it as a badge of honor. In contrast, the Liberterds used to be “antiwar”. Today, thanks to their blind hate for Trump they have become super-ultra-neocon-war mongers plus deep state supporters. That deserves special recognition. I am no Repug supporter.
The dying US Empire has two choices here: Leave now in an orderly, face saving way or later in one of two ways; the Vietnam way, desperately plucking people off rooftops with helicopters on the way out or the Soviet way, leaving with it’s tail between it’s legs when the empire goes belly up.
Please don’t try to sound as if the POTUSTRUMPET is rational, organized, full of knowledge, caring, aware, vigilant, intelligent or even one of these.
Major bummer. I had hoped Trump would reverse course on all the pointless and counter productive militarism that is bankrupting our country. Come on Trump: I voted for you because you promised we’d stay out of Syria but that’s not what you’ve done.