The Pentagon was very public about how much they opposed President Trump’s plan to withdraw from Syria last year. They’re still very opposed to it, and are trying to spin it as a mark of failure in Syria.
There are big problems with this argument, the biggest of which is that the US never actually withdrew from Syria in the first place, so any report that suggests this mythical pullout caused other things to happen was necessarily flawed.
Still, that didn’t stop the Pentagon from issuing a report that claimed
that ISIS is making a comeback in Syria because of Trump’s withdrawal,
which never actually happened. This is a fairly cynical attempt to
further pollute the idea of the pullout, and ensure a permanent US
presence.
It’s almost as if this report was prepared last year as a backlash to
the pullout if it had happened. Perhaps more confusingly, this is the
only Pentagon report really suggesting ISIS is making a comeback in
Syria, which by all other indications isn’t happening either.
Pentagon Uses Report to Lobby Against Bogus Syria Pullout
Report blames pullout that never happened for ISIS resurgence
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
