US Army Chief Gen. Mark Milley has become the first US military leader
to publicly confirm the Trump Administration’s planned withdrawal from
Syria, making the comments roughly a month after the plan was announced.
Gen.Milley said that the US is determined to finish off ISIS and then will “hand the battle off to our indigenous partners.” A spokesman later clarified that “indigenous partners” meant the entire 74-nation anti-ISIS coalition, including Turkey.
A lot of details are absent in these comments, particularly on how to
decide when ISIS is finished off, though analysts are broadly
interpreting this as military confirmation that the pullout is
happening.
Vice President Mike Pence also reiterated the
Trump Administration’s intentions to withdraw from Syria, though as
with Milley he offered little in the way of specifics, and left things
like a timetable totally unaddressed.
Army Chief: US Will Leave Syria Once ISIS Is ‘Finished’
Gen. Milley is first military leader to confirm pullout is happening
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.
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