The US military continues to try to present the war in Syria as being about something other than oil. On Saturday, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the chief of Centcom, said that the US expects to resume anti-ISIS operations in the coming days or weeks.
McKenzie told reporters in Bahrain that the US has about 500 troops in northeastern Syria, and intends to continue to work with the Kurdish SDF in fighting against ISIS, in areas where ISIS is believed to be present.
Pentagon officials have tried to present fighting ISIS as an ongoing goal, though President Trump has repeatedly said that the US military presence in Syria is now exclusively about controlling and ultimately extracting Syrian oil.
500 US troops are unlikely to be able to extend their military goals beyond being roughly at the Syrian oil. The ability to project US fighters out of that area is unclear, and with it unclear where ISIS fighters are at this point, it’s unlikely the US will even attempt a new offensive.
There is no ISIS there, or anywhere in Syria — unless we manufacture it. These officials know that they can say anything to gullible US public. Any fib will do. If US really believes ISIS to exist there — why not let Turkey take care of it? Why tug Kurds by their greedy noses, when we know for sure that we will not give them a state, or haw any say in what is now happening in Kobane, Kurdish would be capital? Syrian Government is in charge there, so the best we could come up with is to place a small number of American kids to act as a trip wire, so we can hang out on this Syria-Iraq-Turkey border area! Just to be an annoyance, preventing peace settlement. Only Kurds are still free lancing using US as their last ditch hope to save their hides. As most of the US sponsored SDF, in reality Kurdish YPG committed ethnic cleansing in Arab majority areas under their control — it is easy to see why the thought of returning to civilian life — and possible trials — is not appealing to the hard core Kurdish cadres.
But it will not be possible to stop Turkey from clearing their border areas. So, this ISIS nonsense is really a gigantic money waste —something US public does not seem to mind.