U.S. Prepares to Fully Remove Troops From Northeastern Syria
News comes after Turkey announced a military offensive against Kurds in the same region.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the US military has started preparations to remove all of its forces from northeastern Syria:
U.S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State, the people said.
The move follows a call last week between President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to launch an assault on America’s Kurdish partners in Syria.
The US has 2,000 troops in this area. The official said that President Donald Trump made the decision on Tuesday. The Washington Post reminded people that “Trump has long promised to conclude the campaign against the Islamic State and has questioned the value of costly and dangerous military missions overseas.”
The Wall Street Journal stated that the task to eliminate the Islamic State “is largely complete” since the terrorist group “has been effectively cornered in a small stretch of Syrian territory along the Iraq border.” The Pentagon estimated that the Islamic State controls “less than 2% of the territory it once held in the Middle East
Vijeta blogged about Erdogan’s decision to launch a military offensive against the Kurds in northeastern Syria, who the US has allied with against the Islamic State. He noted that the Kurds have held a key role to liberate areas in Syria and Iraq from the terrorist group.
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Comments
WILL this have any impact on the war that will come to Israel? Perhaps fewer Americans will die, along with the salvaging of some of our equipment.
While the overall goal of being less in tangled in the area is spot on, suddenly leaving a vacuum which our enemies will fill is foolish. This is exactly what the Democrats criticize Trump of being: inconsistent and impulsive. Many times he uses that to his advantage, this isn’t one of them. What bugs me most about this is it appears to leave the Kurds in a desperate position. The Kurds are the only Faction in Syria turkey or Iraq that has been favorable to the USA. You never stab your partners in the back, everybody sees that and remembers.
“You never stab your partners in the back…”
Unfortunately the United States has a long, long history of doing just that.
Yes. Prime example, South Vietnam, 1975. We made a promise to them, and the Democratic Party broke it, deliberately consigning them to death and slavery.
Consider also Eisenhower screwing the UK (and incidentally Israel) in Iran and Suez. And Eisenhower screwing our friends and potential allies in Hungary, though they never got the chance to be allies.
I somehow doubt the US made similar promises to these Kurds. Nor should it have. Provided ISIS was pushed back, this day was inevitable from the beginning.
This is upsetting, the Kurds are the good guys and we are going to let them me massacred by Muslim terrorists
Unbelievable
It’s like Benghazi for the Kurds
We do need to get out of the entire hell that the ME is, but we need Turkey to be on its knees, not threatening the US and then we run with our tails between our legs and let our allies be slaughtered.
This is not my President
just because the ground troops are being pulled doesn’t mean the air part will stop also.
If you are not prepared to send your sons and daughters, I would not be too quick to complain. If the Kurds have anti-tank missiles and air support, they will be just fine.
Remember, there are 88 different civil wars, border wars and general insurgencies going on around the world. We cannot fight them all.
Good. There is no reason USA servicemen (or women) should be injured or die in some f*kd up country like Syria. F them.
If my son or daughter was in the service, that would be their choice, as much as It would destroy me. You don’t sign up just for the benefits.
The problem here is abandoning our allies… again
I want out of the ME completely, I want to do what ever we must to protect Israel, but the rest…done.
This may be the best move. If the Turks attack the Kurd the Kurds are liable hand the Turks’ asses to them. At any rate, there is no need to involve U.S. troops in combat against Turkish troops.
the kurds are ‘the jews’ of turkey, syrian, iraq and iran.
we used them for DECADES and need to man up.
Turkey is NOT our friend.
Don’t be too quick to conflate a drawdown in northeast Syria with total abandonment. The guys who took the good fight to ISIS deserve the benefit of the doubt here. Missions evolve and force strength evolves with it. Doesn’t mean the Kurds won’t receive the necessary force multipliers should they be needed… and the Turks are well aware of the hell that can be rapidly unleashed from a relatively small US footprint.
Trump has lost his touch and maybe his mind.
This is one province, Idlib, where 5,000 ISIS jihadis are hole up. Get out of the way and let the Russians wipe them out since we won’t and neither will Israel who could easily. They just had a mass slaughter of 700 natives recently and enough is enough. Israel’s security is not a higher priority than stopping the butchers from continuing their bloodsport using our weapons.
Good now Afghanistan. Let the Europeans handle it with their gloriousNew European Army.
Must resist the urge to say 4D chess.
I have no idea what the strategy is.
But everyone has an opinion.
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2018/12/report-joint-chiefs-chair-wasnt-included-trump-meeting-syria-decision/
But apparently, while everyone has an opinion, those who have the expertess and who are paid to have important opinions were not consulted.
Same with out allies. This is nutz. Dangerous nutz.