Reports that President Trump is slowing America’s withdrawal from Syria were confirmed today in a series of Tweets, during which Trump confirmed that the US was “slowly sending our troops back home.”
Though there was never an official timetable for the withdrawal, early reports suggested that the 2,000 US troops believed to be in Syria could be out within 30 days. Now, President Trump is said to be giving the Pentagon four entire months.
In the meantime, the troops are going to be engaged in continued combat with ISIS, and US airstrikes will also continue. President Trump made reference to “ISIS remnants” in his comments.
This presence of remnants has been fueling a lot of the calls among hawkish politicians to just stay in Syria forever, on the grounds that if even a few remain, they’ll quickly regrow into a large organization. Several groups are expected to continue fighting ISIS after the US leaves.
A slow US withdrawal from Syria may interfere with Turkey’s planned invasion of the area they presently occupy. Turkey intends to fight the Kurdish YPG, with whom the US is embedded, and it is presumed they don’t want to do so while the US troops are still there.
Turkey has a schedule as well. I guess we will see the process unfold. It will be interesting to find out how many people would like to personally finance unauthorized exoeditions. Turkey took on the responsibility to fight whatever remnants of ISIS are there. Turkey really should move straight into Kibane/ Hassakah region, to test YPG willingness to chase mythical ISIS and beat up native Arabs resisting Kurdish rule — in the face of losing home front. And French are dragging their feet, hoping to stay in Syria, their former colony.
Macron has to fight his own people protesting poverty — and is wasting money on foreign adventures. Crazy times.
Slowing down the US troop withdrawal from Syria is a big mistake Pres. Trump just made .. after all, both he and former SecDef Jim Mattis had signed orders for this troop withdrawal to begin immediately, not 4 months from now. He can’t simply override the signatures with just a Tweet .. those signatures are written in stone and must be obeyed.
In addition, Turkey also has a schedule .. that is, to send its forces into NE Syria. We all guess, Bianca, we’ll see the process unfold .. and it’ll be interesting to find out how many people would like to personally finance these unauthorized expeditions (the vast majority of US citizens want a quick pullout of US forces). Turkey took on responsibility to fight whatever remnants of ISIS are there. And French forces are dragging their feet, hoping to remain in Syria, their former colony. Macron has to fight his own people protesting poverty, and it’s wasting money on foreign adventures.
Trump knows the vast majority of US citizens are sick and tired of these endless wars around the globe, bringing not only more debt on the country, but also the loss of lives – both US soldiers and the civilians of those countries the US invaded and occupied.
The withdrawal of these 2,000 more slowly will allow the rest of the Americans already there to be further reinforced. The CIA needs time to get more contractors up and running and in there. They are not going to quit. Blackwater’s ad said, “We’re coming.”
The irony is that the USA has been playing both sides against the middle in Syria for years. CIA/Mossad continues to support ISIS, US troops are there supposedly to fight ISIS. Notice that Jared and Bibi, the Trump Whisperer, aren’t saying much. Something big is up.
Bibi is coming – he is “the Trump Whisperer”.
Well now just how rare is it to see Trump walking back some more Twitter policy??????
Happy new year and I hope everyone does well despite the fact we are all living in an inverted totalitarian state.
4 more months of mischief.
The conflicted nature of our presence there and the fact that the Pentagon and the White house appear to be engaged in a war within a war are still highly detrimental to the increasingly vicarious positioning of the empire. Trump is a spineless jellyfish who can be swayed any which way by any which faction but this game of homicidal hokey-pokey still signifies the official failure of America’s Middle Eastern project. It’s also sure to give Edogan and Bibi heartburn, which is a win-win in my book. Regardless, unwelcome intruders must f**k off.
Trump’s not going to slow down the withdrawal because he’s not going to withdraw. He finally (likely by accident) decided to do one right thing, Lindsey Graham manages to threaten and whine at him at the same and Trump backs down. He’s got he backbone of a worm. A real tough guy when he yells at young, black women reporters.
Shit. 4 more months of mischief.