In comments on ABC’s “This Week,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said that it is his belief that fewer than 1,000 US ground troops will remain in Syria going forward, and the focus of those troops would remain fighting ISIS.
President Trump actually revised the US military objectives in Syria weeks ago to securing the oil, and while Gen. Milley made reference to the troops staying around the oil, he seemed not to want to emphasize that as the centerpiece of the US operation.
Gen. Milley said he wouldn’t commit to a specific number of troops in Syria yet, and that the Pentagon is still going through the analysis, but his early estimate was 500 to 600. History has suggested the US almost always keeps more troops than these estimates.
The number of troops being estimated right now is based on holding oilfields with no one contesting them, and fighting a largely non-existent ISIS. Additional troops should be expected in the area for the time being, as the US is building bases around the oilfields with an eye toward long-term presence.
America has wasted decades, countless lives, and trillions of dollars on what amounts to petty thievery. All this so a tiny handful can keep their snouts firmly planted in the feeding trough.
Whenever a serving officer in the US military opens his mouth on the record and is authorized to do so – he is lying. Period. End of story. Don’t even waste my time trying to discuss this.
Lying plus the gazillion contractors who are basically troops anyway.
USA never leaves peacefully. Casualties are required to impel exit.
USA left the Philippines, peacefully.
OJ peacefully left the scene of the crime……
Nice rebuttal.
How many Filipino civilians did they rape and murder before leaving?
Compared to whom?
The Japanese?
The Islamic terror groups Abu Sayyaf and
Jemaah Isamiyah?
Or Duterte’s death squads?
By that measure, not many!
I served with Milley, he was company C’s commander when I worked at Battalion Headquarters with S2 (scouts/intel). (5/21 7th id) This meant he was in and out of headquarters a lot. As one of the Commanders he relied on our reports and would come by to ask questions, get confirmation, etc. He was a middling officer, not the best and not the worst, fairly average in all ways. Looking back I realize that it’s the middling ones with the “Go along to get along attitude”, that seem to be the true lifers. They don’t make waves, they go to a lot of schools, they take whatever post they think will get them ahead, etc. Nothing special, just endless mediocrity. In some ways that’s what makes it all the more depressing. Guys like Milley are not anything special at all, yet here they are, in charge, while anti-war people are marginalized to the point where our existence is barely noted.
We, the anti-war people, have been defeated by mediocrity. Happy MF’ing veterans day.
Yup, war is big, loud and expensive. It whines for attention. Antiwar is silent in comparison, it ain’t over til its over.
Yes, those of a bureaucratic bent tend to rise to the tops of bureaucracies. And the DoD is the biggest bureaucracy on the planet. Look at Eisenhower. Prior to World War Two he never held an active command at higher than battalion level. He mostly worked his way up the “command” ladder on staff, training, and planning positions.
Not in the Soviet army after the initial defense debacle. Would you consider Georgy Zhukov to have been the Soviet Eisenhower? When he appeared at Leningrad he was unknown to the German headquarters.
I specifically described a tendency.
A single historical counter-example doesn’t contradict the claim.
That was true for the NCO’s also.
Happy Armistice Day, not Veterans Day. The war criminal Eisenhower replaced Armistice Day with” Veterans Day” for Americans in 1954.
Translation: Plz fund me.
US built and abandoned many bases in Syria along Turkish border, in the north, along Euphrates to the dam and towns of Raqqa, Manbij and Kobane, and many others. This is just to give some new contractor money in lieu of compensation for the supply contracts they lost when other bases were abandoned.
What is worrisome is Al-Tanf, snd Rukban refugee camp, full of ISIS fighters, and “guarding” them is estimated 300 mercenaries funded by US, called Revolutionary Commando Army.
What is their purpose?
Why is the refugee camp not transparent?
Any independent humanitarian evaluation?
Why were civilian refugees not allowed to leave?
Transport was offered, why refused?
Why is the mercenary group spokesperson speaking on behalf of refugees?
People that escaped made it to Jordanian side of border — then to Government control territory. They are asking for their families to be released, and no humanitarian group would check into it.