After the president’s tweets and taunts of the past few days, who could blame them? “That is our mission, and that mission isn’t over, and we’re going to complete that mission”, McGurk said.
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His advisers have been pressing him to maintain at least a small force in Syria to ensure the militants are defeated and prevent Iran from gaining an important foothold.
In comments Tuesday, he said the Syria mission was “close to 100 percent” accomplished, and said that “I want to get out”.
The Kingdom’s officials have indicated they want the U.S.to stay, Trump said, adding he has told them they may have to foot the bill for the continued operations.
The problem with those two strategies is that they don’t reflect on-the-ground realities on the Mexican border or in Syria.
President Donald Trump pre-empted his own recent speech about his administration’s plan for an infrastructure initiative to break some confusing news about his policy on US intervention in Syria.
“We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. They’re pointing weapons to deter Turkey, an ostensible North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally fighting for control of non-ISIS held territory in northern Syria against a Syrian-Kurdish faction we help”, said Ford, now a fellow at Yale University and the Middle East Institute. U.S. forces in Syria, while limited in capacity, can at least keep an eye on – and act as a speed bump for – that Iranian influence.
“Leaving U.S. forces there for a “short term” is a compromise but those who guess we’ll stay long-term may want to re-think”, said Amb. “We are still in consultation with the White House about ways we can expand that support”.
Trump, who has frequently insisted that he would not “telegraph” his military plans in advance, may find it hard to persuade Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and top military commanders to set a deadline for pulling out USA troops. The New York Times, however, reported that the White House has tried to walk back the president’s words.
The White House said the military mission to destroy ISIS was coming to an end, but the US remained committed to stabilizing Syria. And second, because then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just announced in January that the 2,000 American troops in Syria would remain there.
Senior members of the Manbij Military Council (MMC), an ally to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the Syrian Kurdish YPG is a leading component, told Kurdistan 24 the US-led coalition had established military bases on the line against the Turkish forces along with their allied Syrian rebels, known as the Euphrates Shield militants.
Trump spoke by phone Monday night with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, and last week hosted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.
The president made clear his patience was running out as he met top national security aides on Tuesday. But sometimes it is time to come back home.
Last week during a speech on infrastructure in Ohio, Trump surprised even the most senior members of his Cabinet by announcing the US planned to get out of Syria “very soon”, according to a senior administration official and a USA official familiar with the matter.
Any military deployment should be crafted more carefully than tweets, and fully explained to citizens who contribute the manpower and the money.
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Securing foreign dollars while pulling out troops could allow Trump to argue before the November midterms that he’s shifted the burden of resolving far-flung crises away from America.
