The typical Trump insanity. No troops where they are not supported by equipment. If one dies due to this I hope there will be a great outcry.
I know Ronald Reagan wouldn’t approve, but the shutdown could be over quickly. All the air traffic controllers could get the flu. The country would shut down. McConnell could put the funding bills on the floor. They would pass and sit on Trump’s desk. Then let him try to wiggle his way out of responsibility.
It won’t happen, but it could.
I, for one, don't want to give away a quarter of the planet to the Iranians and Russians (and thereby also the North Koreans).
I love all these articles about the withdrawal that never once mention that the US presence in Syria always has been, and still is, ILLEGAL.
2
We can't afford to have our soldiers everywhere. They should be here working as civilians, as builders, teachers, doctors, nurses, repairmen, engineers, scientists, farmers.
1
Let's face the arguments brought against speedy withdrawal:
- The Syrian Army is very well capable of defeating what remains of ISIS with the help of its Russian and Iranian allies. In the past it has beaten much larger groups. It is also an illusion that the US can be of much use when it comes to a guerrilla war against ISIS groups that have gone underground.
- Throughout the conflict the Kurds have mostly stayed neutral. All signs are that it can work out a deal with the Syrian government. The US should cooperate with Russia in this as they have the same interests.
- The US presence doesn't contain Iranian presence. On the contrary: the US is a major reason for it. Only when the external threats disappear can we expect Syria to cut down on foreign involvement. The US is seen as an external threat.
- The US is seen as wanting to get rid of Assad for its own motives. As such its credibility as mediator between the government and the opposition is low.
2
Leaving the Middle East is the best news and finally we have a President that understands it is a giant wasteland. Trump understands that we no longer need their oil. The US is the worlds largest energy producer. Why do we want to send our young men and women into harms way? And we don’t even get paid for it? What a waste of blood and treasure. Bravo for Trump. Now let’s get out of Afghanistan! Let the Russians and the Iranians get their heads blown off. Bad neighborhood!
4
It would be better for the entire world if Trump would pull out of Washington.
4
I thought this was delayed. But NO! trump has to double down on the knife in the back of the Kurds and America's surrender to Syria, Russia, Turkey and Iran simultaneously.
Isn't stabbing allies in the back what trump does routinely? Mitch could learn from this, but he is all to focused on stabbing government workers in the back and in their wallet.
Great interview and summary of this by Thomas Friedman on CNN with Wolf Blitzer this evening. Trump giving away the farm for nothing in return - kind of like the criminal tax cuts to the wealthy for nothing in return.
3
To all fairness, when Americans drew out of Lebanon, Syria pulled in and .... peace finally came to the country. I don't know how bad it was for America to pull out of Lebanon, but it was definitely good for Lebanon.
2
@yulia
Agreed, but don't forget the Kurds and Turkey's promise to annihilate them.
1
A chaotic withdrawl was the departure of U.S. forces from Saigon. No where have I seen or read anything that indicates our milifary is in a chaotic retreat from Syria. Chaotic better describes the daily decisions made by our President not our soldiers in harms way.
As another NYT article points out, as America withdraws, Russia and Iran (allies, at the very least in wanting the fall and demise of the United States of America) is filling and will continue to fill the gap. And soon the US will be beholden to long-time America-hating Iran and long-time America's staunch competitor and often enemy Russia for oil and other critical resources. Nice going. NOT!
When will Trump's supporters, including current and former military members, get that he most definitely does NOT have America's, not their own, best interests at heart or on his mind? If you guys want to live in a week, isolated, autocratic country, be our guests in emigrating to North Korea or Turkmenistan or such, and leave America to the rest (majority) of us who want to keep the USA genuinely democratic, honorable, strong, with good allies and still a pleasant, humane, and cherished place to live and to bequeath our children and theirs and theirs, and so on.
3
And the US in the ME, why? Last time I checked, it was quite away of American borders.
1
@yulia
Russia, too, is far from the US border, but that hasn't stopped trump and his cadre from taking their orders and doing their bidding, normdid it stop the Soviets from nearly succeeding in completing nuclear silos just off our southern border in Cuba and later make inroads in Central and South America. 1930's and 1940's Japan and Germany were far from American borders as well, but that didn't stop the Japanese (in a trade war with the US, no less) from bringing the war into America proper (been to The Arizona memorial, or is that, too, too far away for ya?) not did it stop the Germans from getting their U-Boats into the Long Island Sound and elsewhere along our eastern seaboard.
Do you want an emboldened and enriched and expanded America-despising Iran or other of their allies (think North Korea, among others) bringing the fight State-side? If so, can your hometown be their first target?
@MSW Yes Trump reflects his base, and his base wants the US destroyed so they can form some sort of White Nationalist Homeland...as hair-brained a scheme as that seems, these are seriously delusional people.
Obviously this dovetails nicely w/ the Russian & Iranian worldview of No America---which is why the FBI investigated Trump as a possible Russian Agent, actually, because how else could one logically explain the behavior?
Trump is no stranger to hanging people out to dry. A good example is President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. After he did all the leg work with Kim Jung Un, Trump dashed in and tried to steal the show in Singapore leaving Moon holding an empty bag. Of course there were no results from the meeting, only promises.
Now it’s the Kurds left out in the cold as Trump tweets his schedule to withdraw from Syria. A phone call from/to a foreign dictator and a photo op is all it took and presto, the Kurds are on their own to die at the hands of one of Trump’s dictator idols, Erdogan of Turkey.
Three administration officials, Trump, Pompeo and Bolton, all say three different things implying separate courses of action by the US. The rest of the world says, “What?” European allies in the area are confounded.
Bolton gets kicked out of Turkey and Erdogan won’t even meet with him. The Russians are rubbing their hands because they won’t have to confront the Americans. Iran is going “It’s ours.” Netanyahu says, “What is going on?”
This administration’s foreign policy, including this latest withdrawal from Syria, is in a shambles because of Trump. He pulls an end run on the State Dept., the Dept. of Defense and every one of the agencies who have spent years acquiring expertise and information. They are necessary to plan implementations of foreign policy and action. This is incredibly dangerous and furthers the down slide of American prestige and leadership in the world.
2
I am glad that we are finally pulling out.
POTUS has been clear that unlike the 44th - he will not give any warnings, information or disclose operations details that help our enemy.
And war materiel is something that is incredibly valuable to ISIS.
Remember all equipment left behind by Iraqi soldiers who literally ran away.
Heck, from what I remember ISIS turned these weapons around and fired on these fleeing cowardly Iraqi soldiers.
I am glad we are confounding all as to our true withdrawal time table.
More confused the other side is - better.
If our soldiers are still there a year from now - sure, Congress must ask questions.
Until then - we ought to leave withdrawal to our military.
1
@ Neil
No, 45 just takes photographs of the real faces of our active and deployed SEAL team members and tweets them around the globe, along with their current location information.
"The Trump detractors will argue that it’s the wrong decision, not the right time, or too quick, etc. What they won’t acknowledge is that America is chronically addicted to foisting wars, regime changes, and political, social and economic strife in countries which have only resulted in making them even more miserable."
2
If when the Muller report is issued will Trump have to slink off to Russia like Yanukovych did?
1
I have to wonder what Erdogan will ask Trump for next after this rousing success.
3
Do our brave men and women in the United States military really want to take a bullet for Donald, Bone Spur, I'm a coward. Trump?
They took an oath to serve and protect the United States Constitution.
Donald is, day by day, destroying the Constitution.
These men and women need to search their souls and make a decision.
Let's hope they make the right decision. This country's existence depends on it.
1
No equipment, must leave. Stupid needs to vacate White House.
ISIS is not defeated and will attack us.
1
Once again, it is proven each and every day, whatever Trump touches, turns rotten and dies. Whether it be foreign policy, domestic policy or just blantant lying- he destroys everything he breathes on.
2
When one fifth of the world's population get down on their knees every day and pray to God(Allah) for an enemy to go to Hell, it would be wise to give them some room.
2
Apparently, a number of commentators here are grateful to trumPutin for leaving Syria precipitously.
Why? Would they rather ISIS and their ilk bring the fight to us, here on US territory?
1
To all fairness, it is long way from Syria and Lebanon. Funny, how this argument was used to invade Iraq, that actually created ISIS.
1
Thank you Mr. Trump. It is time we get out of the middle east and stop with the meddling that got us into this whole mess in the first place. Are Democrats and some Republicans suggesting we continue to involve ourselves in the middle eastern wars? If so, for how long? 1 year, 10 years, 50 years?
3
No, they are suggesting we be honorable and true in keeping our commitments and being good for our word, And they are suggesting that we not create or allow a situation in which Russia and America-the-Greay-Demon-hating Iran become ascendant and then gain the ugly, controlling upper hand on America and turn our country into a hovel and our people into impoverished peasants with a few Russia-affiliated oligarchs. Or worse, an Iranian shariah colony.
1
Funny way to understand commitment. First, you invade the country, then you cute 'commitment' to keep occupation going.
2
Last month, officials said, Mr. Trump said that he intended to pull out American troops within 30 days.
Depending on your side of the fence will determine how that sentence is read. Some will say it’s just the start of the process begun in 30 days, others will say it means it has to be completed in 30. As long as we can find fault with other is all the matters more than anything, so it’s irrelevant what it actually does mean anyway.
1
One of the many trump boasts was the military had all the best equipment. How do the families of soldiers stationed over there feel about this decision by the man that knows more than the Generals?
2
The Kurds want their own country.
It would have to be carved out from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and/or Syria. All of these countries are opposed to a new Kurdish state. In fact, all are prepared to use military force to prevent such a state.
So what should the U.S. do? Are we prepared for military action against some or all of these countries, including a NATO ally, to create a new Kurdish nation?
Can we count on U.N., or at least NATO, support us militarily and diplomatically?
While the Kurdish desire for a new nation is understandable, they are going to have to fight for it themselves. It’s not our fight.
3
Yeah, that is exactly what France and Spain said about the American colonies during the American Revolution. “Let those American colonies go it alone.” Don’t provide them any assistance or military support.” That General Lafayette guy must have been a figment of General Washington’s imagination.
1
@John
So what did the US do to protect the Kurds in Iraq from the Iraq government take back of Kurdish areas last year???
@John You might be interested to know that there is an autonomous region of Iraq called Kurdistan. Syria isn’t simply another Mideast war. Russia can’t wait for us to get out, which is enough reason we shouldn’t. Since Russia is actually there, it’s not even a proxy war. It is in our interest to oppose the Russians in Syria as it is in our interest to oppose them in Ukraine. Putin’s puppy dog should not be making these decisions.
1
If equipment is being withdrawn but not troops, then what are the troops supposed to use to carry out their "nearly accomplished" mission so they can nearly accomplsih it a bit more?
Let's hope they can improvise, just like ISIS - IED's and stones may become the only weapons available to them.
Hopefully our command over there will provide enough of what our troops need unitl this one gets bettre sorted.
Amazing what's going on. Pulling out of Syria is no different than our withdrawal from Iraq, except we left all our equipment in Iraq when we left. Both withdrawals were because we had no right to be in those countries to begin with. We went in because the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims were fighting with each other. Whenever you try to break up a fight both sides will pounce on you. That's what happened.
This is a Sunni-Shia Muslim contest. Erdogan of Turkey is a Sunni. The Kurds in Syria are not Sunni Muslims but Shia Muslims. The Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims despise one another. The strife that is between them is hundreds of years old and will not resolve in our life times.
Before we pulled out of Iraq In 2008 we granted Syria and Iraq to be Sunni country ( ISIL). So, we are Sunni backers, no getting out of it. Israel was once a part of Sunni territory (The Levant) and the Jews and Sunni Muslims got along fine with each other. So. Israel is a Sunni backer. And the Shia Muslims say they intend to bomb Israel into dust and that was a grave mistake.
Shia Muslims are basically Iranian Muslims. Assad in Syria is a Shia Muslim. Assad does not belong in Syria, nor do the Syrian Kurds.
Now, the sense of it all is in the numbers. The Sunni's are a billion strong and outnumber the Shia 4:1, and have a billion man recruit base. Why that is not plain as the nose on your face is a mystery,
1
My suggest is that Americans learn the lesson: when you waltz into these little tiffs because you’ve treated the little people with contempt, haven’t bothered to understand the issues, figure YOU won’t have to go fight, and didn’t trouble yourself to vote, it is not as it happens so terribly easy to waltz right back out again.
2
To say that Trump is unfit for office is the grossest understatement. He's a one-man saboteur, either the willing or unwitting minion of Putin and now Erdogan.
3
The Crusades lasted 200 years. We've been in the region coming up 18 years. We need to just arm the Kurds and support them with air and satellites. Then let them have their own country.
2
Yeah, sure Palestinian conflict is not enough, let's open another one.
1
What's exiting Syria, first and foremost, is any sense of our credibility as an ally.
2
Chaotic withdrawal? Did we see that in Vietnam not so long ago?
1
MAGA; KAG; Build the wall; Lock her up. Promises made; promises kept. Catchphrases. Govt workers/farmers losing their homes. Kids dying at the border. Americans fighting Americans. Time to end the trump nightmare. Ray Sipe
7
Trump dumps Iran nuclear deal claiming to save Israel, only to then pave the way for Iran to move in right next door to Israel (and when one is there you realize how very close and literally next door it is). So, yeah, now Iran has little need of nuclear arms, as they will soon be able to lob a massive bombardment of conventional weapons (or some armed with the kinds of impermissible WMD chemicals that Assad used to murder his own people) the several kilometers from the Syrian-Israel border into Israeli population centers; and/or to pinch Israel's northern half off in a coordinated attack with Iranian bred and backed Hizbollah they in Lebanon.
Nice going, ever-betraying Trump. And Bibi-leh, dear, (and Jewish American trump supporters) maybe in the future be a little more cautious about whom you trust and celebrate... lest you find yourself in bed with an American Amalek.
4
I hope we leave the Kurds lots of stinger missiles. That might send a message to Turkey.
2
What a catastrophe this administration is from start to finish. Everything these people touch falls to ruin.
9
Anybody In the Pentagon War Planning Department remember the Vietnam Paris Peace Talks? Those talks got bogged down because the Viet Cong delegation did not approve of the conference table. Whose on third base in Syria...Afghanistan?
1
I feel so horrible for the poor Syrian children (and parents) who have suffered so these past 8 years. And now they may find themselves under the infamous Republican Guard with its social police or as Russia's 38-40 year old consolation prize after failing to take Afghanistan as a foothold in the MiddleEast. And for the Kurdish among them, one hopes Erdogan doesn't follow the ways of his anti-Armenian predecessors.
5
Don't you feel sorry for Iraqi children and Afghani children who suffered for last 17 - 15 years? or for Libyan children? Let's be honest, the US involvement in the ME was total disaster that brought nothing but blood, war and destruction.
1
Outrageous. Simply outrageous.
Doesn’t President Trump listen? Doesn’t he know that Americans want war? Indeed, we demand it.
Where is Congress on this? Why have no Republicans or Democrats formally introduced legislation to ensure that no U.S. soldiers are ever withdrawn from Syria or any other country?
If Congress won’t act, then "We The People" must. We must make our voices heard.
Let’s organize the War March 2019. If 500,000 people descend on Washington and demand war in Syria and elsewhere, then Trump and/or Congress will be forced to keep our soldiers everywhere indefinitely.
There can be high-powered speakers including several ex-generals, Hillary Clinton, and Robert DeNiro reprising the role of Slim Pickens sitting atop a bomb.
They will inspire the crowd to not just march and protest, but to TAKE ACTION. Everyone will be encouraged to enlist immediately at the nearest military recruiting station.
Who’s with me?!
4
Little old for that, myself. Also a tad old for heavy-handed cheap sarcasm from the right-wingers who got us into this mess to start with.
3
@John Well said, bring ALL of our troops home now!
1
Well ordinarily I would agree with this decision, and perhaps compliment Trump on being less of a warmonger than his predecessors. The problem is that I don't have a short memory, and remember that Trump already suggested putting boots on the ground in Venezuela. Funny enough it's been reported he planned on doing it, but Mattis and his old guard generals talked him out of it. Syria has strategic importance for the U.S. and her allies. Venezuela really doesn't.
However, the question becomes.. How long do you think the military industrial complex will allow America to end it's endless wars? How soon until we see action in Venezuela under Trump.
3
Pulling out now would be sort of like quitting after Iwo Jima, because "our mission has nearly been accomplished". It ain't over 'til it's over.
3
Turkey doesn't have the influence or lobby in Washington that, say, Israel has; it doesn't have the money that the Saudis have; and in all likelihood doesn't have the dirt on Trump that Putin seems to have. So it is hard for me to believe that one phone call with Erdogan and Trump decided to pull troops out of Syria.
Whether you like him or not, one thing that Trump has been more or less consistent at is to keep his campaign promises, and he did promise to pull out of Syria during the campaign. Netanyahu and many in Washington praised him for keeping his campaign promise when he moved the embassy to Jerusalem, but now the same Netanyahu and Washington people are bashing him for keeping another campaign promise.
At the end of the day I believe that Netanyahu is going to win - as he always does in Washington - and get his wish; Bolton and Pompeo were summoned to Israel recently and both announced that the US isn't leaving Syria until "ISIS ideology is defeated", which is even more vague and open-ended than until "ISIS is defeated". (Of course if they were really interested in defeating ISIS ideology, they would start with Saudi Arabia.)
Calm down, folks; US isn't leaving Syria.
2
By withdrawing from Syria, we are betraying the most faithful fighters (to subdue ISIS), the Kurds, as dictator Erdogan is salivating already to try to destroy them. But then again, who said Trump (representing the U.S.) can be trusted?
2
What about the 40,000 refugees in Al Rukban under Assad siege in an area of a self-declared U.S. demilitarized zone. Hungry or starving defended by a militia fooled into thinking the U.S. would help them once it finished with ISIS.
#EyesOnRukban
1
I cant believe we are abandoning the Kurds again. I mean we are truly evil...how many times have we used them, abused them, and then left them to be slaughtered? Like 5 times now? I think every president has done something like this since Bush I.
2
Everyone is looking to Trump, Bolton and DoD to clarify what our “strategy” is in Syria. I think they would be better informed if they looked to Mueller for guidance. It would be so nice if were prepared for the next “shock and awe” campaign concocted by Trump to distract from the Russia investigation before it happens.
3
Floundered-in-Chief, not a Commander-in-Chief, is what Individual 1 (trump) is.
I pity the honorable troops who must beckon to his ill-conceived and ill-willed call.
6
I remember some reporting done from Kurdistan shortly after Trump occupied to the Oval Office which passed on the information that "Trump" had become a popular name for babies.
Evidently somehow the impression had been passed on to the Kurds that Trump would be better at protecting their interests. I wonder how they are viewing that now.
2
First the President tweets we will withdraw all troops from Syria immediately prompting the resignation of the Secretary of Defense. Next, Bolton announces that it will be a strategic withdrawal that guarantees the safety of American allies and could take quite a while. Then Pompeo announces that the U.S. presence in the Middle East is as strong as it has ever been and we are finally on the right path. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world is questioning U.S. policy when it changes hourly and is articulated by laughable personalities.
7
" Chaotic ". The perfect polite word to characterize the Trump Regime, in all circumstances. Thanks, GOP. 2020.
6
"U.S. Equipment, but Not Troops, Begins Exiting Syria in Chaotic Withdrawal"
EVERYTHING about the so-called Trump administration is chaotic. The only significant withdrawal will be when phony president, the ignorant, corrupt liar-in-chief resigns from office in ignominy, or is put in federal prison for the rest of his miserable life. Either may go some distance to saving America from the toilet he's dragged us into. Maybe.
3
Donald Trump revels in superlatives. Here's another one: What we are witnessing from our president is quite likely the most effective instance of treason in human history. He has rendered the most powerful nation in the history of the planet subservient to a failed autocratic regime.
I'm sure he's proud.
10
Simple really
In we all went and created chaos.
Until we restore some semblance of order - morally we have to stay there.
Just to remind you - US troops aren't the only western troops in Iraq/ Syria.
Mr Trump's comment went down like a lead balloon in Europe - apart from Russia - who laughed their way to domination and influence
someone needs to get a grip
6
If Trump gets us out of the Near East and Afghanistan, keeps the Saudis happy so we have stable and tolerable oil prices,does not invade Iran, starts to pull back from the Russian border,gets rid of birthplace citizenship and enforces E-verify with jail sentences and heavy fines he has my vote. In fact if he does all these things I don't care what kind of border fence he builds and how useless it is. It never will be as stupid or expensive as invading Iraq and Afghanistan. I spent a number of years there. The Dems are complaining about the cost of the wall. Almost all of the complainers voted to invade Iraq.
4
While I am not a fan of military actions, I greatly respect those who choose to serve in our military. These people put their lives on the line. Trump has no idea of what that means or the concept of caring for others beyond yourself. He is dismissing the expertise of Generals in favor of pundits on Fox News. If one of these soldiers dies, Trump should be put in front of a military tribunal. His political gut decisions are just not enough when people's lives are on the line. This is potentially disastrous for our troops and should cause a massive protest and outrage. Where are McConnell and the GOP in the Senate to stop this reckless behavior?
2
It must be confusing for the military personnel directing traffic for this exercise. Are we leaving, going, staying? Quo Vadis? So much winning!
7
The US has not been appointer to play Texas Ranger to the world. The government of Syria did not invite us in as they did the Russians, and we do not have, nor never have had, any business in there in the first place.
The people of Syria have to live with the conditions there, and it is up to them to accept or change them.
7
And just how do you suggest people living under a murderous dictator “change things “?
How many thousands have already died trying to do just that?
SO EASY to dismiss the situation with a flippant wave of the hand .
2
@mikecodyl Lafayette wasn’t invited by George III either.
@mikecody: I agree we never had any business there to begin with, but as we did in Iraq, we went in and made a big mess. Now those people are left with a disaster on their hands. They didn't ask for this.
1
You can't dig a hole without a shovel.
The troops will be the next to go.
1
Here is how it went down. President Trump calls for withdrawal in 30 days by video after speaking with Erdoğan. Recep's idea is to slaughter the Kurds (our allies). Trump is okay with it.
Mattis resigns. Then John Bolton tries to appease the rest of the world by saying we will not be pulling out that fast and want the Kurds protected. Mr. Bolton is overruled by our Führer. Thus we are withdrawing now. Erdoğan, Putin and Hassan Rouhani are all happy. And we further continue to abandon our allies & allow the axis of evil to take over.
Maybe now the Americans people see that Gerrymandering & the Slave States' Electoral College have allowed the minority party to take over the country and rig the system so they can stay in power. Changes are needed.
13
Agreed.
1
Guess these troops leaving Syria can go down on the Mexican border and help Donnie build his imaginary wall.
6
This is exactly what I was thinking. He is going to pull out the troops and move them to the border to build his wall.
2
Here's a terrifying thought, really: Trump is simply giving away Syria and the Kurds to the Russians to satisfy whatever personal business interests/unseen deals he has with Putin and Trump's gang of Russian followers and lenders. Just like Mnuchin is suddenly lifting the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. This is now so transparent: America elected a traitor who lives in a world of global business completely untethered from political and international boundaries, laws and traditions. For Trump and his family and evidently so many others in his circle, there is no American flag, just American dollar bills waving in the breeze. The evil is becoming breathtaking.
12
What I didn’t get from this report is whether the authors are implying that there has been order in Syria, and now that US forces are moving, chaos. Or is this chaos different than baseline?
2
@Michael Metz (who wonders if our troops pulling out will not create instability in the Middle East).
Good one Mr Metz. Our policy and then troops that are sent there to implement it create the instability.
The British and to an extent the French used to do that. We took over since our national priorities (read the arms and logistics industries priorities) are now the dominant ones in the world. Maybe it is the last decade of Pax Americana but until the Chinese dictate terms there it is our call.
Instability (like volatility on Wall Street is fir trading) is good for the arms business.
3
@Blunt The international version of Mayor Daley's quote "The policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder." perhaps?
1
"Chaos" for all, but not for Trump.
What do Trump/Kushner care about?
A Saudi crown prince able to support any crackpot scheme they have for the Middke East.
What is their crackpot scheme for the Middle East? Railroad the Palestinians with a "peace proposal" the most extremist Israeli settler would be proud of(fitting since Kushner and family fund/support exactly such fanatics). And unite every wacko Middle East dictator (see Saudi crown prince) against Iran.
Middle East, you are lucky America is around!
3
So confusing! The Washington Post says we're withdrawing troops today, and the NYT says we're withdrawing equipment, not troops. Does anyone actually know what is happening in Syria? Probably not--not even the Pentagon.
5
@Molly I have no doubt that those with a need to know are well aware of what is going on in Syria. The Times and the Post are not in that category, however.
2
AFAIK neither Pompeo nor Bolton were elected President, and it was a Presidential decision to decamp from Syria...say what you want about Trump, he after all is the military C-i-C, and not either of those two neocon loudmouths.
3
Why bother having them around when Trump is his own national security advisor, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense—not to mention the greatest general ever. What a bargain!
4
There is a trade-off between short-term stability (strengthen dictators) vs long-term stability (support democracy through rule of law and cooperative international institutions).
Unfortunately there is no workable third 'ignore the rest of the world and hope it goes away' option.
On the plus side, at least we’re not simply abandoning a big pile of gear for the bad guys to use, as we’ve done in the past.
2
Can someone tell the truth in DC please? This confusion, spin, exploitation and manipulation of the American public has got to stop! Mr. Trump. there's your crisis. Not those refugees south of our borders. There is a crisis in this White House and McConnell's GOP Senate. Total confusion, total chaos, and lies..relentless, constant lies. Whether it be our troops and allies in the Middle East or Europe et al or we the American citizen including our furloughed government employees, all, everyone, is being abused with lives and livelihoods threatened daily and hourly. And, supporters of Mr. Trump, do not think for one minute he is not using you also.
14
This withdrawal is only temporary. In reality the job of the Israeli Foreign Legion will never be done.
6
Policy on Syria in chaos,all Policies are in chaos is more like it
4
Trump probably feels OK about having dodged the draft because we “won” in Vietnam without him.
3
Haha. Yeah, let's get the equipment out first. I'm sure the remaining troops won't mind.
Chaos is good! Just get an idea from a TV show and then pick up a phone on the desk (the one at Trump Tower was much bigger) and order it done. If any of your generals resign, it's just good chaos! They're probably Democrats anyway.
Who knew being president was this easy?
12
Iran, Turkey (and even Russia) are local players with skin in the game. American security is not endangered by whatever happen in that area. It is the desire of the ‘colonial minded’ Americans to have other peoples countries under the American boot: it is the macho thing!!!
American troops should leave Syria, Iraq, not in 30 days but 30 hours. The equipment can be dynamited in place! America cannot be America when it occupies other peoples countries.
5
Who's on first? The chaos president keeps 'em all guessing, unfortunately, it includes himself.
4
OK, fine, let’s find an end to this. We are caught up in yet another quagmire or two or three. We can’t undo the fact that our being wherever we find ourselves tied down now may have been based on misunderstandings and outright falsehoods. But can we prevent this from recurring?
Consider this option: let’s take US corporate interests out of the equation (especially regarding oil and other natural resources; we’re now exporting fossil fuels, as you may know) and I’ll bet that we find the need for us to engage in foreign wars (particularly in third-world countries like Iraq and Afghanistan) quickly disappears.
Our implied interest in spreading democracy and personal freedom to other nations has always been a sham. And military force has been our nearly exclusive tool in that toolbox. Show me those democracies created by our military efforts apart from WWII.
It’s all about money. Just look at how the military-industrial complex is benefitting from our destabilizing of the Middle East. And those native peoples? Not so much. When we encounter (perhaps even foment, intentionally or otherwise) a civil war, we need to stay away and then deal with its outcome. Remember Vietnam?
6
I fear it’s worse than merely going to war to save the oil (or insert drummed up reason to mask our true motives).
Without research I’ll still make an educated guess that there’s some significant “defense industry” in most congressional districts, critical to the local economy. Of course this is by design.
War is our business.
Supplying the materiel for it is an economic driver. Since we never stop making it we’ve got lots to sell around the world. You may be thinking to yourself, “Well yeah, we sell to our friends...”, but that’s just the big-ticket, razzle-dazzle stuff. There’s plenty of stuff that can kill you many times over that ends up in the hands of God knows who every year.
Swords into ploughshares...
2
Is it possible that Trump could be the only true hero President in regards to getting us out rather then helping us get more entrenched in the middle east? God works in mysterious ways and does not always pick what people would call the obvious choice to do his work.
6
Ah! You mean someone like King Cyrus the non-believer, used by God to release the Jews,long ago? Trump is actually a great moral liberator and reformer in disguise ?
Sorry, I find that an outlandish idea.
1
@C. Bernard: "Is it possible that Trump could be the only true hero..."? No, it's not possible.
Boy was Jeb Bush right! With Trump its chaos everywhere, all day and every day. Not normal, certainly not necessary and our country is too good to have Trump run roughshod over it. People need to demand and end to this from Congress.
3
Isn't all of this just a little too public? Troops withdrawing and, particular, having material withdrawn in advance of troops, leaves them exposed. I don't know that much about military operations, but I wouldn't think this is something that should be advertised.
Of course, advertisement is what our president does. He announced this publicly to score political points. In fact, that's the only reason he's doing it at all. That and to change to focus away from mounting evidence of collusion with Russia.
1
So equipment will be removed and personnel will be left behind without said equipment, for an unknown amount of time and unclear withdrawal plan. Awesome.
5
US (read Israel) has a strategic interest in eventually carving out a Kurdish state in the middle east. Anyone who travels to the region and talks to people there knows about this open secret. US will never acknowledge this until conditions are just right on the ground; neither will Israel though back in September 2017 when Iraqi Kurds insisted on holding a meaningless independence referendum (which turned out to be a big mistake for them) Israel was the only country that openly supported the idea of an independent Kurdish state.
Israel would use such a state as a buffer between itself and Iran, and use the Kurds as its foot soldier in case of a war with Iran or have them pick fights with Hezbollah and whoever else bothers Israel in the region.
Kurds of course know the price they would have to pay for getting a state; they would have to be a good servant for their masters and fight for the US and Israel when they get the call.
So, it is not so much that the US/Israel care about the Kurds per se, but Kurds have the numbers in the region spread across several countries and desperate to have a nation of their own. So they are a convenient "ally" for the US/Israel.
Bottom line is that as long as Israel has the influence that it has in Washington, US will never withdraw from Syria. Question is can we expect Turkey, Syria, and others in the region to sit quietly and hand a chunk of their lands to the US for it to establish a state for Kurds?
6
@Kevin
I would agree. With the Gulf War of Bush senior and Iraq invasion of Bush junior, US already established a semi-autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq. Now this is continuation of that in northern Syria.
1
No no.
Lindsey fixed this just the other day.
(3 laughing cat emojis here!)
2
How I hate this.
Of course I don’t want our military running our government, and
of course I don’t want them lying to us. Except for this.
1
When Barak Obama acted on the agreement negotiated by the Bush 43 administration and withdrew the U.S. forces as called for in that agreement he was crucified by the Republican and Democrat war hawks.
How could he "cut and run" and allow the birth of ISIS? How could he ignore his generals people asked.
So, now we have a person who claims to know more than the generals withdrawing from a field of battle to defeat ISIS which, as happened to Obama, will leave a vacuum, and, a path for Erdogan, another Trump BFF despot, to for the Kurds.
Yup. Obama did it equals bad. Trump does it equals good.
The hypocrisy is comical.
6
Gee, Lindsey and Mitch, what do you have to say about all of this? Nothing as usual?
Is it gradually dawning on you that the only real emergency in this country is the leader of your party? That all he does is create chaos wherever he goes and whatever he does? That he is an existential threat to western democracy?
Didn't think so.
5
The administration has turned our foreign relations into an appalling mess. We have become a big and terrifying factor in the world. Nobody can trust us, anymore, but we are so powerful that everybody just cannot look away. We are rapidly becoming the most terrifying nation that the world has seen since the 1939’s when it was fascist states who talked like each of them were going to be the new Roman Empire. We are making ourselves look like something different, a force for chaos.
2
How many times will we betray the Kurds? Of all the players in the Middle East, their culture is the most like our own---democratic, much more egalitarian than most of their neighbors--and yet we use them and then abandon then when it becomes politically expedient. Bush Senior abandoned then to Saddam. Now Trump will abandon them to Turkey. Shame on us. Maybe the Kurds need to start looking for a democratic ally that will not sell them out for political profit.
2
So, now it's equipment but not troops (yet)?
Is this supposed to assure the world that someone has their hand on the tiller?
NOT my president
3
And the United States of America has credibility around the world?
Trump, Bolton and Pompeo, the Three Stooges personified.
This just keeps getting better and better.
5
We are being ruled by Temper Tantrum. Either that, or Vladimir Putin.
4
Is this not something like leaving the plumber standing beside the leaking toilet, but taking away his wrench?
5
Great reporting by all. Pull out or not, the U.S. needs a coherent, effective strategy for the Middle East, and Syria is the poster child. With a graph like this of all of the players, it seems impossible to solve:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/25/middleeast/syria-isis-whos-fighting-who-trnd/index.html
But the graph means, as many analysts have said, that the removal of any of the nodes, in particular the U.S., causes uncertain readjustment of the dynamic tension there.
And:
“U.S. Equipment, but Not Troops, Begins Exiting Syria”
Oh great. We’re leaving our troops there without equipment. But seriously though, it’s time for a diplomatic solution in the region. As soon as we get a government again, we can begin on that task.
1
The headline changed before my comment was posted so let me write something that will survive any and all future headline shifts. Trump is working for Putin, he doesn't care about our American military or America's standing in the region or in the world and I thank god he doesn't have a "Space Force" under his command as it would only replicate the confusion. betrayals and "who's in charge" anxiety in zero gravity.
4
Declare a victory and bring the troops home. Trump is so wrong in so many ways. If not now? When do we leave? Generals are always ready to keep fighting, I am glad to see our troops coming home. We are leaving a 75 thousand man Kurd army on the border with Turkey to continue keeping a check on ISIS, Time to trust our allies
4
I'm old enough to remember how we pulled out of Viet Nam and it wasn't pretty. I hope at least this time it's more organized and safer for both the local military that assisted the US and the civilians we leave behind.
3
@VMG
There we lost and withdrew. We had no choice. Like Napoleon did not have a choice.
There is a difference.
2
Given the fact that the US has no clear or articulated strategy in Syria, the presence of American troops in Syria is increasingly looking like it was a decision of "me too" in response to Russia and Turkey having troops in Syria. The Kurds allied with the US are just mere accidental and thus being abandoned because their usefulness in fighting ISIS is no longer needed.
4
there is but one soluton to the problem of US involvement in Syria: golf. let President Trump play all the golf he wants, in Florida if he wants, maybe 24 hours a day, and keep him
away from making any more decisions, maybe about anything. Trump is a walking, talking chaos creator. we would be better off if he dild nothing at all and, might we wish, leave things to people who acually know something if thry haven't all already quit in disgust.
3
Good idea, golf. Worked for president Obama.
Trump. Bolton and Pompeo: three stooges with sharp knives they are tossing in the air and asking the world to catch. These evil clowns are gone for sure in 2020 but we need to figure out a way to make it happen sooner.
5
Can all of the changes in US Syrian policy simply be headline changers? Is #45 trying to distract the news of the day? Are all of these zigs followed by contradictory zags using our armed forces for domestic political relief? Are federal workers and special forces being utilized solely to serve one man's conception of winging it for his own benefit? West Wing could not possibly have written such an absurd script with the President, Sec'y of Defense, Sec'y of State, and National Security Advisor all clashing and expected to stay on the air. Red line in Syria, ha! crayon scribbling is more like it.
2
Gut-based US foreign policy, directly from a sick man's stomach. Fasten your belts tight, it is going to get more gut wrenching.
1
Strange, I don't remember electing John Bolton to anything.
1
What the heck is going on? Troops moved around at the whim of a president who doesn't bother informing his own cabinet! One person who probably does know what's going on, is, of course, V. Putin, the man who most likely suggested this course of action, and who may be the only person regularly updated on all the details of this latest mission in the middle east - whatever it is.
5
Must be raining where ever Trump is so he can't get out on the golf course - he paces - watches FOX news - and needs something to do - next come the Tweets
pray for sunshine
2
Pompeo and Bolton! What a twosome of keystone cops getting out of their circus cop car. I dont think these guys could lead a one car caravan. All joking aside, it appears our President and his hand picked experts dont have any idea what is going on. This has to make us a joke across the world..A little history lesson for Pompeo--it was the Bush/Cheney crowd that destabilized the mideast with the iraq invasion--
1
Trump is destroying the country. Putin is thrilled.
6
Can no one figure out what is happening? This administration acts like a random pin ball bobbing and weaving but never hitting a deliberate target. These returning troops will likely as not be sent to our southern border where they can help build a useless wall for our great president.
2
Elect a clown, expect a circus. Foreign policy by twitter. American leadership spiraling downward. Adolescent tantrums over a useless border wall. 800,000 federal employees used as pawns. All this MAGA is so productive. SAD!
3
So big bad Bolton turns out to be just the latest macho-spouting wimp unable to persuade or even advise our Fox-infused Commander in Chief.
Bolton reassures us of nothing, he has accomplished nothing, and his word means nothing. Just like America's, these days.
All these bold old boys of the mighty Right don't even make good lap dogs. More like poodle-cut pocket-book pups.
In light of their unbroken line of capitulation and failure, our right-wing tough guys have been exposed as the weak-kneed frauds we kind of always knew they are.
1
This administration is stumbling from confusion to incoherence to mismanagement to abuse of power creating a vortex of crisis.
The United States is beginning to resemble an imploding star … next to be a black hole.
This is depressing.
Americans are waiting patiently for Robert Muller’s reports.
4
Trump is doing everything he can to dismay our allies and please our foes. In fact, I'm beginning to think our foes are his allies and our allies are his foes. He is abandoning the Kurds to annihilation by Erdogan, unless they cut a deal with Assad. He is abandoning Syria to Assad, while strengthening Russian and Iranian influence in the Middle East. He has, to all intents and purposes, turned his back on NATO and the European Union, while ceding U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region to China. He's the gift that keeps on giving to Xi, Putin and Kim Jong-un. And he continually undercuts his own Secretary of State and national security adviser. This is no longer simple idiocy by an unfit dotard in the White House. I smell treason.
3
As we scratch our heads - wondering why one hand doesn't know what the other is doing in Trump's administration, wondering why Trump is abandoning both Kurdish allies and Syrian oilfields, and wondering why he would trust a dictator like Erdogan, who oppresses Turkish media, spreads propaganda, and murders his opposition.
Russia wants the US out of Syria.
It's that ugly, and its that simple.
4
Fortunately, Trump and Bolton are not on the same page or even reading from the same book.
1
On page 1, above the headline of this article were the words, "U. S. FOREIGN POLICY." This is inaccurate. The United States doesn't have a foreign policy.
3
With all these crises, Trump needs a second summit with Kim to buoy his fragile ego. No one loves, understands and strokes the l'enfant President's needy psyche like the boy despot.
3
Ha, ha, ha. Good one, Mr. Hubbard!
"U.S. Begins Syria Withdrawal, Amid Uncertainty Over Strategy"
You think the Draft-Dodger-in-Chief has a strategy. You should be writing for Comedy Central!
2
(translated by Google) Yes, we will prevail in Syria and the middle east with the help of our friend, Mr. Trump, in Washington. Mr. Trump is learning our ways but soon forgets what he is doing which causea confusion which you are seeing now about your troup withdrawal. I hope he does not forget his promise to give our esteemed president the grand apartment in the new Trump tower in Moskva. Bad news for him and your country if he does forget.
An administration in total disarray!
2
Why do I have this sickening feeling that the troops are coming home to either head to the border to act as construction workers, or worse, head to the streets to act as policemen for a state of emergency.
4
I am really starting to believe Trump is like a child with imaginary friends. There is no rhyme or reason to his behavior absent the voices of Hannity, Putin and Erdegon who have access to some pathway in his brain telling him to reject the advice of US military and intelligence. Otherwise, his debts and obligations to Russia are more profound than we what is becoming more clear every day and so he acts on unguided impulse or nefarious instruction. Can you imagine what the Israelis are thinking? Speed dialing Jared, I suppose....
Like most of Mr.Trump "gut" (Watching him on television his gut is proportionally larger then his brains.) is making a bad decision. What do you except from a business man who does refuse to pay vendors for work they performed. The danger of this moral bankruptcy is instead of stiffing small business concerns, people will die.
Mr. Trump is breeding a new generation of terrorists. Abandoning allies, from separating children his lack of foresight and empathy will get Americans murdered.
Keep a shadow force of drones and all the money wasted on other Middle East countries should be on The condition they supply troops to be deployed wherever we see fit.
We need a few more withdrawals.
2
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Leaving Syria is the right thing to do. Obama went in without congressional approval in order to combat IS. Then he handed off this illegal invasion to Trump whose administration wants to use it to confront Iran.
Mission creep based on presidential power creep.
2
The Trump administration is a gang that can't shoot straight, and all it wants to do is shoot. It can't keep its story straight for even a few days. Why would anyone believe, let alone rely on, anything Trump or his shills say? It's beyond embarrassing.
It's also dangerous. For a president who presumes to lead with a concern for national security, his own insecurity and actions have, themselves, become as big a risk, and perhaps bigger, than anything else.
The Trump Administration's foreign policy is built on quicksand.
We Stay....we go....yes....no....up....down.
Our country is slowing sinking into it.
4
This administration is like a polycephalic hydra. Consider this: One month ago, Trump wants the troops home in a month. A few days ago, Lindsey Graham, Trump’s chief spokesman and apologist in the Senate, says the withdrawal will be slowed. Then Bolton indicates that they may not withdraw any time soon, until certain conditions are met. Yesterday Pompeo makes a speech in Cairo blaming the previous administration for all the problems in the Middle East and flexes his muscle, and today the troops begin to withdraw. If there is anything that can make you dizzy, this is it! CHAOS!!!! Or is it? Perhaps, this is how Trump gets his way.....
Remember when Trump sided with Putin over his own intelligence agencies? This has that same vibe. Trump throws Bolton and Pompeo under the bus to appease Putin. That must be some really seriously bad kompromat.
2
Chaos. Trump created the chaos. Bolton lamely tried to spin things out longer. And the troop commanders on the ground/The Pentagon, are beginning the withdrawal. Pity the poor Kurds, betrayed again by the US, and left at the mercy of Turkish pasha/dictator Erdogan. Putin loving it all, and the Iranians too.
1
What's really the next step for American troops? Fight a war with Russia and Iran over Syria? The Islamic State is defeated and if they rear their ugly head again, let the Russians take care of them. We've been at war for nearly 18 years, we can't keep sending our young men and woman to fight and die forever, with little progress to show for it. Bin Laden's dead, ISIS is beaten. Time to come home. I may not like the Donald, but I agree with him on this.
1
Its pathetic to see how disjointed the Trump administration foreign as well as domestic policy has become.
Styria "leave-stay-leave" plan and border security strategy to "build concrete wall or steel slats or barrier or anything that Trump can put his name on."
It like a "Three Stooges Movie" but in real life...and that makes it scary.
1
further muddling the Trump administration’s plans for disengagement from one of the Middle East’s most complex battlefields.
Perhaps the Times would like better and it would be more clear to them if the military published the flight number, ETD, aisle and seat number for each soldier in advance of their departure. Perhaps even have them sign off on it first.
1
George Orwell understood Trump and his friends all too well. He has provided the future if we do not stop him now:
"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. . . . Power is not a means; it is an end . . . not power over things, but over men. . . . In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. . . . There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. . . . Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever."
"“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
2
@JQGALT
If you believe anyone is pulling out of Syria any time soon I know some people who could sell you the George Washington Bridge for a bargain. They will even help you finance it with a Nothing Down Zero-coupon perpetuity mortgage.
Trump will pull a few poor devils back home and send some others later. And you and your friends will cheer the macho President, perhaps live on Fox. What a treat!
1
Trump: We are leaving.
Bolton: Not until we are sure the Kurds are OK.
Army: As directed, we are leaving.
Kurds: More American coitus interruptus.
@Ed Marth
I don’t know the interruptus part. Ask the Kurds.
1
Thanks to the GOP/Republicans (Representatives and Senators), the US and our democracy are in free fall. Never did I think this would happen with them being the (ir)responsible party. Trump is a narcissistic, perfidious megalomaniac, his administration is nothing but sycophants enjoying their power, and the GOP/Republicans just sit on their hands in order to stay in power.
Bolton says one thing. Trump another. And reality yet another. A national disgrace.
1
Maybe Trumpism is pointing that USA' s people are tired of being a superpower and a referree ....maybe in battelfifgt of democracy's leadership and Putin dictatorship ...this guy is more powerful because in democratic society, populism is a real, powerful determining factor...in Syria and Afghanistan , Asad and Taliban as stooge of Putin were able to defeat all USA's plan.
We are in Syria to oppose ISIS a disease which we gave birth to. The fact is George W. Bush, our dumbest president, created ISIS, Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, by deposing Saddam Hussein, the dictator who led and held together Iraq, based upon the outright falsehoods that Iraq had involvement in 9/11 and that Iraq possessed WMD's. Saddam held ISIS elements at bay. When he was deposed and murdered, ISIS had free reign.
We created that problem, we should see its resolution all the way through.
1
The strategy of chaos - A Trump plan of inaction
This is completely at the behest of the Likud Party, a Russian friendly interest group colliding with a pro Vladimir US president, and the Turkish despot that is designed to create more turmoil and chaos away for years to come.
1
Since ISIS is Sunni and Iran Shiite wouldn't it be logical to conclude that Iran would want to evict ISIS as well? Turkey and Saudi Arabia are Sunni as well. Saudi Arabia does not let Iranians visit Mecca. This is why they hate each other. How does it help America get involved in that, which is the real religious war going on over there. And Assad wants his land back. He's not going to tolerate an ISIS caliphate on his turf.
1
I finally found an analogy that describes the demented people The Con Don has assembled. It's as if loud, obnoxious football fans took over the teams and tried to play.
They do not know what they are doing. They are finding out that their "backseat" attacks on OUR government and their "brilliant" answers are so far from the truth that it defies logic. All they are doing is destroying OUR government and other organizations.
They must all go. NOW.
2
This is just further proof that Trump's advisors have no impact on what he decides to do, regardless of the consequences to supposed allies or the American people and their increasingly tarnished reputation.
Who can doubt that after the speeches of Pompeo and Bolton, that a short tantrum followed by a threatening call lead to the immediate abandoning of the Kurds and the late Christmas gift to Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
Maybe Trump can get the Kurds to pay for the wall if he promises to leave 100 troops in Syria to protect them.
51
@Yakker
His advisors do have an impact. You have the wrong people as his advisors. Trump's real advisors are people such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingrahm
14
Being the grandson of a German barber and a Scottish maid , 5th knows more than generals with higher IQ.
1
I’ll not criticize this tactic because the most effective way to sabotage your strength position in war is to telegraph the when and where of your actions. One of the biggest criticisms of Obama was that the Generals had the habit of telling enemies what they were going to do a priori. Now, that makes no sense at all. Just because the real solutions were diplomatic at that time does not mean you should set-up the ground army to be ambushed.
2
Trump said that our troops "were sent to fight the Islamic State and that their mission has nearly been accomplished"?
Not true. Trump said "We have defeated ISIS in Syria". There was no "mission has nearly been accomplished" in his statement. It was a declaration of victory.
Only, he was wrong. I guess leaving 10 or 20,000 ISIS troops in Syria is OK and qualifies as defeat. And now his withdrawal of our troops from Syria will let ISIS reconstitute themselves in the region.
Wonderful strategy you have there, Mr. President. You got that from Putin, did you? Sure, let's abdicate Syria and the rest of the mid-east to him and Iran. Who needs stability in the region, anyway? Oh, and let's get Turkey to slaughter our allies in the area, too. Erdogan has been itching to wipe the Kurds out for years. They were only the ones who have been doing the fighting against ISIS lately. Who needs them to survive? Now that we've "defeated ISIS", that is?
It's no wonder why the rest of the world looks at us and thinks we're just the Keystone Kops. Under your "leadership", we are.
Yes, we need to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan. But on OUR terms, not on Putin's. Why can't you understand that?
63
@Max Dither you really think having US troops in the Mideast provides “stability in the region?”
5
@Michael Metz To a degree, yes. More so than just yanking them out and leaving a vacuum that Russia and Iran are happy to fill. Moreover, having a force in the region, at least in Afghanistan, improves reaction times in case Pakistan falls apart and is in danger of letting their nuclear weapons fall into the hands of the terrorists infesting their country.
My point is that, yes, we want to withdraw from Syria, but not because Erdgoen wants Trump's help in slaughtering the Kurds, who are a very key ally of ours. And, ISIS is still alive there. Do we want to let them grow again?
We need to define our own strategy for withdrawal, one that meets our national interests. The way Trump is taking our troops out now is irresponsible and creates havoc among the countries in the region we ally with.
6
@Michael Metz
Good one Mr Metz. Our policy and then troops that are sent there to implement it create the instability.
The British and to an extent the French used to do that. We took over since our national priorities (read the arms and logistics industries priorities) are now the dominant ones in the world. Maybe it is the last decade of Pax Americana but until the Chinese dictate terms there it is our call.
Instability (like volatility on Wall Street is fir trading) is good for the arms business.
7
Why are we picking a fight with people 5,000 miles away? Don't say to defend liberty, nobody cares about liberty when they are hungry and starving.
23
@Nev Gill
Nobody, huh? What about Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela? What about the forced feeding at Guantanamo? Some people care more about liberty than hunger.
At the moment, our fight is to defend some 28 million Kurds from genocidal authoritarians, two million of which currently reside in Syria. The inconvenience of 2,000 US military volunteers seems like a small price to pay in blood. You're not going hungry to save a Kurdish life. Our presence actually helps prevent Kurds from going hungry.
You're confusing Syria with Yemen. The US power vacuum in Yemen has indeed precipitated a massive famine. We're only just beginning to see how terribly necessary liberty is to preventing hunger. The US is on the sidelines.
3
@Nev Gill A reason we SHOULD be there (although I would readily admit that our strategy for being there may be for different reasons and has been embarrassingly confused and convoluted) is to prevent Russia from re-inserting itself back into the region.
They were there before.
Much of what Putin wants to do is to recover the influence that was lost as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union.
Whether or not that has been successful or not is debateable. BUT, if we totally leave? Well - game over.
2
@Nev Gill The issue here is with Trump's motivation. Due to his past and present behavior there is no way to tell if he is doing this becausd he is being pro American or if he is doing this because he has been compromised by a hostile foreign power. Due to his actions and behavior over the past two years you would be a fool to believe he did not collude with Russia to defraud his own country in an attempt to win the presidency. Regardless of what you other Trump supported believe, I just want him to be as hostile and forceful dealing with our enemies as he is with his own fellow Americans. For some reason he is scared to criticize Putin and he continually praises dictators and authoritarian rulers while they continue to order the raping and murdering of their citizens.
2
I wonder how this "US troop withdrawal that isn't a withdrawal" is going down in Israel? Netanyahu tried to sell himself as the guy whose great relationship with Trump guarantees Israel's security. This troop withdrawal from Syria now guarantees the presence of Iranian forces right across the border with Syria, which will increase tension and concern in Israel. But, maybe this is what Bibi Netanyahu needs to win the upcoming election - a security crisis that papers over his corruption scandals, which endanger his political survival - and Trump is making sure that crisis materializes just in time.
39
@Pete in Downtown
If Israel, Russia and Saudi Arabia didn't want this to happen. It wouldn't happen. They are as thick as thieves now, and both Israel and Saudi Arabia have turned their back on the E.U and Britain.
1
U.S. hegemony has spawned the world's largest refugee factory.
Trump is proving to be less a warmonger than his presidential predecessors, including Obama, who couldn’t resist meddling in Libya as witnessed by his administration’s sanction for the reckless overthrow of Muammar Ghaddafi.
Granted, Trump is badly flawed, but if he’s the broken clock that's right twice a day, then this is one of those rare moments where evacuating American troops from Syria is the right thing to do - as painful and controversial as it will be.
The Trump detractors will argue that it’s the wrong decision, not the right time, or too quick, etc. What they won’t acknowledge is that America is chronically addicted to foisting wars, regime changes, and political, social and economic strife in countries which have only resulted in making them even more miserable.
These destructive foreign policies need to be drastically reversed and it can’t happen any sooner than now.
34
@Michael: there is some truth to what you say: in spite of his frequent bellicose rhetoric, Trump hasn't actually started any wars, and bringing our troops home is a good idea.
A lot of "Trump's detractors" have been arguing against our global military presence for a long time, and if they criticize him, it's only because his "being right twice a day" isn't part of a coherent policy, and things like this withdrawal from Syria aren't done intelligently. Reducing our military presence should go along with efforts to build alliances and reduce conflicts using our diplomatic and economic power -- the agreement with Iran was a good example of what we should be doing, but Trump is backing away from that, and trying to whip up more conflict in the region, and pumping in more arms, even while pulling out a few of our troops -- or, maybe pulling them out, who knows?
That said, yes, we should be glad that he's not as war-like as he likes to sound. So far.
8
@Michael: You write: “What they won’t acknowledge is that America is chronically addicted to foisting wars,...”
It’s not that simple, and emotional thinking leads to the hyperbolic language in social media. Right, “they” won’t acknowledge that “America is chronically addicted to foisting wars” because it’s untrue and international relations are much more complex geopolitical relationships.
Isolationism is a very idealistic notion. So what you should say is that you want stability in the Middle East and that you want to undertake programs that achieve that goal.
Isolationism is easy from an arm chair.
5
@Michael
I would be happy to give Trump credit when he does something right. The problem is he has a history of making impulsive decisions or pursuing strategies designed to benefit himself, so it's very difficult to evaluate what is right and wrong, let alone give him the benefit of the doubt.
More importantly, has Trump ever accepted blame when he's wrong?
6
Missing from this article is the further confusion added yesterday my the Pompeo Doctrine to get every Iranian boot out of Syria. As the Iranians are allied with Russia as well as Assad, the Pompeo Doctrine would conflict with Trumps cozy relationship with Russia. More practically the US would have to take on Russia to expel Iran from Syria. This is equally as rediculous as Bolton’s idea that Turkey would both refrain from attacking the Kurds and take over the fight against ISIS.
6
It is heartbreaking to see how the office of president of our country is being misused by a mentally unstable and emotionally disturbed individual. it seems trump and his administration are completely clueless about everything. The supporting members of the GOP are responsible for allowing this black comedy to continue. Not only does trump need to be removed from office and his administrative appointments fired, but he needs to be locked away for treasonous acts along with McConnell. I doubt any serious consideration will be given to his removal on any grounds until he begins a nuclear war -- the ultimate show of his undisputed power and disregard for humanity.
5
Why are we even in Syria?
9
"A United States withdrawal would make it easier for all those forces to make moves into the area, perhaps bringing them into conflict."
More than lightly perhaps not since these are winners of the revolution after having defeated America and its terrorist proxies.
It looks like America is dispensable after all. The Kurds will be folded into the Syrian Army for their own protection.
1
The U.S. presence in Syria has always been illegal, and the flimsy justification of fighting ISIS doesn't hold up to serious scrutiny. As the article alluded to, Bolton and other advisors' real goal is to protect Israel and assure its unquestioned dominance in the region for decades to come. I would instead like to see us stop payments to that freeloading country. As opposed to NATO countries, we only get grief from them. We also should stop enabling its apartheid policies.
As a Times reader, I would like to see the paper get off the war bandwagon.
8
Trump's Russian masters must be so pleased. The US President has thrown out whatever credibility his country has with its allies, but looking at history ask, who profited most in both World Wars, who were the late entrants, especially in WWI.
3
It is a happy, happy day in Moscow, Damascus and the soon to be resuscitated ISIS caliphate.
As for the Kurds, who did the actual fighting, I am sure they are forever grateful for yet another betrayal by the US.
Now, is this the part where I yell MAGA and rub the tummy of my Trump doll?
Ugh...
10
Regardless of whether pulling all of our troops, some of our troops or none of our troops out of Syria is the best move at this time, the way the Trump administration is handling it is destroying our country's credibility. Credibility is a force multiplier. The Trump administration is damaging and weakening our military with their contradictory statements and impetuous actions.
12
Illegal Invading Force Starts Withdrawal.
Seems like a good thing.
6
What's going on here? We will withdraw--we won't --we will--now, no next year, no now--What going on? Can't Limbaugh and Coulter make up their minds?
10
This whole situation, which tragically could just be considered a farce if both many lives and probably an escalation of instability were involve, demonstrate vividly what I think of Donald Trump's intellect.
I consider him to be not too intelligent but not a total dummy either. But far worse than his lack of intellect is his IGNORANCE. He doesn't know anything about practically everything that the President of the US should be aware of, and this is especially glaring when it comes to foreign affairs. He can't be bothered with intel briefings or background information, and this is absolutely vital to understanding both the history of the Middle East and its current--and most likely continuing--place as the most dangerous and unstable region in the world.
Nah, just keep saying 'America First' and keep those phone calls with his bro Vladimir to let him know how to deal with these messy issues like peace and war.
In this muddled situation, I wonder if the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, or for that matter if either hand knows what's going on. And since the Trump administration has pretty much gutted the State Dept. you've got this wonderful phenomenon of 'who talked to the President last' or maybe 'Hey John and/or Mike, could you get over to Syria and straighten this out?'
The fact that currently running our foreign policy is Bolton, who recall couldn't get ratified to rep in the UN, and Tea Party guru Mike Pompeo(it's all Obama's fault) speaks volumes.
4
His statement about "nearly" defeating ISIS says it all.
He always leaves before the job is done.
Since Bolton seems to have been completely blindsided in this abrupt decision, I suspect that he will be the next Administration official to jump ship!
2
It is true that the recent wars we have engaged in have been utter disasters. Not clear cut noble efforts against tyranny and oppression. The reference to George W and Cheney getting us into Iraq (don't forget to give Bolton and all the others who signed on to the "Project For A New American Century") was truly a project to justify American exploitation by concocting a weapon's of mass destruction "crisis". Afghanistan's Taliban was no less an American foreign policy blunder which we created. There are no clear solutions to these religious conflicts we have mistakenly inserted ourselves into. Clearly the dependency on oil and those making huge profits instigated our involvement. The evolving landscape of a world transforming itself away from fossil fuel and away from OPEC into one where alternatives become the mainstay is our best assurance for stability and security. But to say we should pull out of these volatile regions immediately and allow the void to be filled with opportunists and ignoring our allies is not sound foreign policy. It reflects the knee jerk reactionary logic of a President who lacks any fundamental understanding of any of these conflicts nor any willingness to learn. He clearly is not one who sought the Presidency out of a passion for American ideals or public service, but rather was picked and placed in the oval office to serve our enemy Russia's interests.
(Don't
1
Sounds like Donnie and Vlad are communicating somehow, because otherwise Donnie never knows what to do. Thank goodness the Russians have a handle on their foreign policy and know exactly what they want: to run the Western world without having to worry about the might of U.S. soldiers and weapons.
4
So, to summarize...
We’re simply evolving in our most deliberate of deliberations regarding our rapid-fire reversal of our slow-walking of our shoot-from-the-hip decision to summarily withdraw any or some or most or all American troops instantly at some point in time from somewhere they’d been – like – forever...
Only thing – we’ve gone and diverted the gas money for the planes to fly people and stuff back home, for some other emergency...
Not that other emergency, the other other one...
The secret one...
No, the other secret one...
9
Pure and simple incompetence. US foreign policy is no more. Rather, just a bunch of individual, unsynchronized positions that are frequently conflicting. Maybe Fox News will succeed at unifying them. They are, after all, the only coordinated and unified organization.
1
CHAOS at home and abroad is Trump's new strategy as Robert Mueller draws closer to exposing his malfeasance in office and criminal activity before.
What other mischievous horrors is he willing to indulge?
4
I think Putin is the one directing Trump to do all these things. Trump's actions which seem to be just random acts of thoughtlessness; may well be the will of Putin.
Many of the intelligent people in Trump's cabinet are gone-- Putin could be using entities such as Fox News et al, Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party, spies, other foreign dictators, and owed debt in order to have Trump do things which weaken the U.S., but give Russia an advantage over us.
By using the U.S.'s well-known racism, some think that Trump is their man; but he's not, he's Putin's man.
This is a dangerous time and all Christians who profess to love this country, should be in prayer for the success and protection of those who are fighting for the right!
3
Only yesterday Mike Pompeo was publicly trashing President Obama's Middle Eastern foreign policy as -- what was it he said? -- "when America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with enemies, they advance."
Yup, for sure Mike, but you have the wrong president.
13
It is Syrian territory and the US presence is illegal. Withdraw and let the Syrian government deal with the remnants of ISIS. The Kurds are Syrian citizens and are not in conflict with the government.
4
Only a foreign-policy hawk (always Republicans, right?) would demand that American military forces remain forever in the world's most intractably violent region. Yet many Democrats seem to be doing just that. Why? Because partisan politics. Because Trump.
Anyone can get into a war. It's easy. Bush the Lesser put the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama honored the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement and withdrew (mostly) from Iraq in 2011, only to re-enter in 2014 to battle ISIS. Obama inherited Afghanistan in 2008 and America is still there, ten years and two presidents later.
Getting into a war is easy. Getting out is always the hard part. Bush failed. Obama failed. It's time to admit defeat in Afghanistan and Syria and let someone else shoulder the thankless job of World Cop.
7
Because Democrats know that leaving ISIS "nearly" defeated, is leaving ISIS undefeated, and that we are not going to walk away and leave the people who helped us alone.
@1bite at a time
Thank you President Johnson. Vietnam is coming along wonderfully, and victory is within our grasp.
1
I won’t spend too much time writing about the intricacies of the withdrawal. This story will probably change in the next couple days.
5
@Themonsheshe
Or hours.
NOT my president
Trump’s erratic use of the power he has as president is about the only way he maintains control that I can see. Chaos. It looks like a “divide and conquer” strategy, with various tactics intentionally executed in a timely manner, to sustain imbalance in the world that revolves around him as president. Given the liar he has shown himself to be, whatever patriotic reason he provides to justify his executive orders surely is suspect. I think he’s using distraction after distraction to keep the question of his legitimacy in the background ... and therefore of minimized concern. And the added benefit for him is that his dramatics with these distractions that even express dire urgency, fuel support for re-election he has from his base which largely has bought into his message of national fear.
4
The best way to Support Our Troops is to oppose wars of choice that place them in harms way for nebulous, incoherent, deceptive or unachievable goals.
If more people in power had read the CIA briefings on Iraqi threat carefully before voting (example: Bob Graham) instead of voting out of ambition, ignorance, or cowardice (example: Hillary Clinton), we could have avoided the worst foreign policy fiasco since Vietnam.
7
Defeating ISIS doesn't concern us? REALLY?
Time to cash a reality check!
Oh, for heaven's sake. What on earth is going on in that White House? This is what Trump's supporters and Senate sycophants call leadership and wise governing. My take is that the "commander-in-chief" needs as much military reinforcement in the US of A and our diverted tax-paying money for our current "national crisis." That is to build a duo-purpose monument..first for Trump's self-glorification and then to prevent those other "terrorists" in the guise of suppressed and oppressed Central American refugees from stepping on our not-so-hallowed soil.
1
The Syrian government has Russian and Urian allies. Unless America wishes to become an allie with Russian & Urian, then what remains of the ISIS problem in Syria is solely a Russian and Syrian problem.
Without question, it was time fr America to leave Syria.
3
For once Donald J. Trump's decision to go with his gut and pull all U.S. troops out of Syria is the correct decision. Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day. The death and destruction caused by the U.S. and Russia has made a horrible situation there even worse for the citizens of that rogue nation. But outsiders should not get involved in what was a civil war. What if the British in 1862 decided to intervene in the U.S. Civil War?
3
@RLW
Why do you call Syria a rogue nation?
It has not sent weaponry and troops to do regime change anywhere... like the US routinely does.
3
A quick google search uncovers the involvement of Great Britain in the civil war.
While maintaining official neutrality, financial and smuggling help, along with ships built in Liverpool, was provided to the south up until the emancipation proclamation.
The reason for the interference was that Great Britain wanted cotton.
1
Obviously, the president should be more forthright with his Russian allies.
2
What does Putin have on Trump that he constantly gifts Putin whatever he asks for? It will take generations for US to recover from this president, if ever.
3
@Maureen Saliba, The word is that Putin saved Trump's hide when he was completely bankrupt about 15 years ago. He owns Trump.
@AJB How do you know this?
Added to the confusion is the fact that Bolton assured Israel that the US troops will remain. The uncertainty all around is dangerous since any one of the competing combatants may feel that they now have a license to attack.
Good,the faster the better. We should get out of the middle east altogether. Enough of this militaristic mindset. Why are we spending a vast amount of money all over the world. It is time to send the Generals home and stop putting our soldiers in harms way and have them realize their true mission is for the profits of the military industrial complex.The companies that feed on war. The politicians and Generals that scare the population into thinking that something terrible is going to happen.we should be forcing corporations to be just. We should be repairing our infrastructure.We should be educating our children for the future. We should be attacking inequality in pay. The corporations run the government and it is time to take it back.
4
The Kurds are toast. Trump’s effort will now be to suppress the media reports that will attempt to the document the results of his actions. Meanwhile, his subordinates will, either purposely or as the result of having no idea what their boss is doing, obfuscate and confuse. Trump will eventually say that he doesn’t want to telegraph his moves, by which he means “I have no idea what I’m doing, so we will have to wait to find out”.
Putin, Erdogan, the Mullahs in Iran, Assad, the Saudis, Israel and everybody else will have to thrash this out on their own. At least we won’t have to worry about what our strategy in the Middle East actually is. We have none. Events will leave us behind and some future American administration will try to put it back together again, whatever it is.
1
Was Trump's surprise announcement merely a gambit to derail an immanent attack into Syria by Turkey? Given Bolton's failure to get a meeting, indicating Turkey still intends to act, regardless, is this "sudden announcement" just another attempt to put off the Turks action?
What we need to know is what the Kurds have been promised (and how they may have optimistically heard those words), who made the promises (NOT us), & when that was. We also need to look at our whole 'control the oil' strategy in the M.E (and, for that matter, the whole world), because it is a serious overreach.
@M. J. Shepley Never. Assume. Competence.
We can have a lengthy discussion about how exactly we got here. There are arguments to be made on many different sides. However, history never really begins or ends. The only question is where do you want to bookend the rabbit hole.
At present though, the US is the de facto protectorate of Kurdistan. A nation which does not exist today but needs to exist somewhere eventually. Our job in the Middle East isn't done until we find some sort equilibrium on this subject. Anything less is a complete and total failure of US principle.
Trump, with the attention span of a gnat, doesn't seem to understand this or any other principle. Hence, US foreign policy is currently confused, chaotic, and destructive.
The good news is I trust the Russian response to this announcement more than I trust the announcement. You can remove one US troop from Syria and you've technically begun "withdrawal." Choose the guy who was schedule to go home anyway. Tah-dah. Withdrawn. The announcement gets Trump off the Pentagon's back without necessarily changing anything.
For a President with no grasp of nuance or detail, the military can easily slow walk our position in Syria despite the Commander and Chief. The President doesn't even read two page briefings. In six months time, someone might foolishly remind him of the troops we still have in Syria. For the time being though, the US mission is still intact.
1
Why is OUR military stupidly following The Con Don's demented orders? It's ludicrous.
They know it's the wrong thing to do. How many Hamburger Hill type catastrophes do we need before OUR Pentagon refuses to follow every order and puts the well being of 99.09% of the people in America and around the world first?
The Con Don and his International Mafia brethren - including Erdogan and Assad - want WW3. Are WE THE PEOPLE - average people around the world whose lives will be destroyed - going to sit idly by and let them?
Not me. Not ever. Powerful people in OUR political, legal and military complexes with a moral/human conscience MUST step up and take action NOW. Hitler could have been stopped if Good People had acted when he first took power.
Look at the Hitler era movies with "adoring" fans saluting him. They were brainwashed with propaganda - just like The Con Don's "base" is brainwashed with fox so-called news and hate radio. It's not going to get better without intervention.
Let's see some REAL heroes. STOP THEM NOW, PLEASE!!!
2
The problem as I see it, is that Mr Trump appears to make random decisions for wholly political or tactical reasons, that are not necessarily a benefit to his citizens. I realise that the USA are not the worlds policeman, but if IS re-form in Syria that would not be a good thing at all. Similarly, his decisions on: the wall, dreamers, Government shutdown and many other things, just appear to have been pulled out of the air on a whim.
12
a whim, maybe, a diversion more likely. Trump obfuscates to his own ends, everyone is a pawn when he sees fit. As news outlets print and broadcast need to make this clear to the public and inform as well as report.
@Henry Rawlinson
ISIS is mostly our creation, as was the Taliban. The one resulting from our invasion of Iraq, the other from our arming of the resistance to the USSR invasion of Afghanistan.
The stupidity of our attack on a sovereign nation using manufactured intelligence was only matched by our mismanagement of the aftermath, dismissing the Iraq Army and Baathist footsoldier elements, creating a disaffected young unemployed grouping ready and willing to militarize when our installed puppet Iraqi president aggressively put down civilian protests in the North using the Iraqi military.
Since WWII, our military has rarely resolved conflicts, ,and mostly either started or exacerbated them. Since 9/11 it has destabilized regimes, empowered radicals and strengthened enemy states like Iran). All at the cost of trillions of dollars and millions of lives ended or disrupted.
2
@Henry Rawlinson
Ha, ha, ha! Good one, Mr. Rawlinson!
A "random decision" means the decision has NO reason.
This country's foreign policy like all the other policies coming out of the Trump administration is a joke. It's a policy developing in real time which shows just how disorganized the thinking of Trump and his staff really is. First we're pulling out of Syria immediately then were are doing an organized pull out with Turkey protecting the Kurds, then Erdogan announces that he will do no such think, but we are pulling out anyway.
Kim Jung-un still has all his nukes and shows no sign of disarming. So where are all Trump's negotiated wins?
What does it take for the Republicans to understand that this country's security is in serious jeopardy with Trump as president as it appears all the adults have left the room.
22
Even if Bolton made his mind to resign,you could not consider the move as a nail in the Trump presidency coffin. And Bolton is not about to resign. Security is security, even if it gets harder and harder to figure out what it is about.
3
After reading the posts, just a few comments. First, it should be noted that Turkey is a NATO ally. Second, authority for placing American troops in Syria was questionable. Obama always stated that there was no military solution in that nation, only a diplomatic one. Third, the only European NATO ally that has a significant military presence in-country is France. If Europe is worried about the renewal of economic refugees to their Continent from that region, Britain and Germany (with other European NATO countries) should join France in replenishment of troops. Their interests will be directly affected. America should continue course in reassessing strategy in view of its national interests. Afghanistan should be next.
13
@R
"America should continue course in reassessing strategy in view of its national interests. "
Agreed. But what America should not do is pull the rug out from under its commitments to allies and cut and run in disorganized fashion after a mere phone call from Turkey's Erdogan -- a NATO ally in name only.
2
@Phil Carson In regard to Turkey, consider reviewing the Montreux Convention and the Black Sea. Turkey controls the Bosphorus, and its hoped for construction of the Kanal Istanbul. The geopolitical implications are enormous to Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. (Not to mention China in its One Belt-One Road Project or NATO and Incirlik.) Turkey has an integral international position. And the nation knows it.
I joined the military in 2004 and did a number of deployments to the Middle East and Central Asia. I actually re-enlisted once in 2012 because I thought we would be going to help the Syrian people who were so brutally being crushed. I cried when I saw Syrian Americans in a park in Nashville holding signs that said “Help us US Army”. It would have been amends in my mind for my participation in the fiasco in Iraq. I made the decision to leave in 2015 to attempt to live a normal life and start a family. Thank god.
There is no way I would even consider volunteering for service when there seems to be no coherent strategy in place at all. You can count the Department of Defense as another US institution that is crumbling in the hands of our current state of gross mismanagement.
I am wondering what effect this insane and rambling foreign policy is having on morale, recruitment, and retention numbers? Soldiers follow orders, but they can also vote with their feet when they reach their End of Time in Service. Are the services suffering a lack of recruits based on the current state of incoherence? If no one is asking that question, they should be.
178
@JM Hopkins
How about asking the question "Why is the US in Syria?"
A diplomatic cable leaked in 2012 told that the US was working to destabilize Syria since 2006, wanting regime change.
Assad has been demonized in order to make the US regime change effort look good.
Before the US incited the civil war in Syria, Syria was a modern society with women active in all the professions and religious and ethnic groups living harmoniously, except the Sunnis whom the US has long used to encourage unrest in Syria. The Assad regime was harsh on dissidents... but so are US allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and many others. The Arab allies of the US all have Sunni heads of state, which is what Saudi Arabia and Israel want.
The US destabilization and military action in Syria was intended to install a Sunni puppet.
For that the US has wrecked a whole country, been responsible for hundreds of thousands dead, created more terrorist and millions of refugees that are now destabilizing Europe, and made the US less safe and the world more unstable.
In response to the US, Assad fought to protect his country from the US and asked his allies Iran and Russia to help.
Assad protected his country, the same as Lincoln did in the US Civil War.
Google Syrian coups and see how much the US has tried to control Syria since 1945.
8
@JM Hopkins
"this insane and rambling foreign policy"
It hardly began with Trump. We've been in Afghanistan through three presidents (so far).
7
@JM Hopkins
This administration zig-zags like a panicked rabbit doing broken field running
4
So, Bolton was trying to cover for his boss... but Trump has to pay his vigorish to Putin. The troops come home; period. Incredible, isn't it? Who has more control over our military and defense policies, our president and his handlers or the neocon head-cases who got us into these problems in the first place. My fellow Americans, let's never forget what the Republican Party has done to our beloved country. Never forgive the GOP for the damage done. Never.
21
@Patrick Hasburgh You have no idea how long the withdrawal will take. You act as if it will only take a few days. It will take longer than that - it is just not a question of driving back over the border to Iraq.
@judyweller Your point? It's not about when or how long, it is about why Trump is going against the advice of virtually all of his military advisers to do what appears to be the bidding of Syria and Putin while abandoning the Kurds, the USA's most loyal allies in the region. This behavior is curious, at best.... likely suspicious. We are owed an explanation as to the why. We're not getting one.
@Patrick Hasburgh Our military loves war because war is what gives it the huge Pentagon budget and all the new equipment. The problem between Turkey and the Kurds existed long before we got there. Also the Kurds have been in Moscow to get Russian help and Erdogan will listen to Putin whereas he would not meet with Bolton
From both right and left lots of us hate "endless war."
But what is this President Trump has given us?
We are out, but we may not be, depends on how things go, so sort of out, but maybe not.
Well, clarity of intent is one of those characteristics of good leadership.
Every general has to be let his troops know what to do, and Mr. Trump knows more than all the generals.
6
@Claudia Could it be that the confusion is generated to confuse our enemies?
@Claudia Actually he knows a lot less...isn't it obvious?
Good!
The Forever-war Uniparty in Washington will be angry, but this is the right decision.
Congratulations to President Trump for standing up to them and the military-industrial complex.
Promise made. Promises. kept.
13
@JQGALT
"Congratulations to President Trump for standing up to them and the military-industrial complex"?
Trump agreed to giving 750 billion to the "military-industrial complex" just last month. And he refuses to give any of that to support veterans and veterans resources.
Wake up.
4
President Trump has never stood up for anything in his bloomin’ life.
Oh wait, I am being unfair.
He’s stood up for his ego, and his wallet.
@JQGALT
If you believe anyone is pulling out of Syria any time soon I know some people who could sell you the George Washington Bridge for a bargain. They will even help you finance it with a Nothing Down Zero-coupon perpetuity mortgage.
Trump will pull a few poor devils back home and send some others later. And you and your friends will cheer the macho President.
1
Many Americans were displeased when we expanded our role in the Middle East past Afghanistan and Iraq to placing troops in Syria. There's a point where we have to accept that our power isn't infinite and that our military personnel can't be everywhere at once.
7
Mr. Bolton and Mr. Pompeo are creatures of the deep state that has fostered these endless no win wars. I still remember the disaster that was Vietnam. I hope President Trump brings all the troops home as soon as possible. We need to fix our country NOW!
4
Chaos has reigned in the WH for two years and now prevails in the Pentagon.
And Putin watches and waits.
The US is very vulnerable at this time and is in a very precarious position.
Syria has now fallen to the Russians but keep your eyes on the Ukraine and the Baltic states.
12
@Lazza May
Syria was always an ally to the Russians--it didn't "fall". And Russia took care of most of the terrorists, while the US strengthened them. Again, we don't have a clear objective there except removing Assad, but that is not possible. Better to pull out now.
2
@Lazza May....So what. Russia is basically a mafia dictatorship with a minor economy and an egotistical leader who wants influence but he is not Peter the Great and the Russians will get tired of him.
We have no legal basis, either in domestic or international law, for being in Syria. Get out now. Or go through the legal process for being there and actually do what we say in terms of standing up for the rule of law.
6
No "perhaps" needed. There will be blood, Kurdish I fear, which will make Donald Trump the second President, after Nixon to leave Kurds in a lurch.
For once in his life, John Bolton said fairly sensible things. That just got the legs pulled out from under him by Trump and Acting SECDEF Shanahan, who surely approved the Pentagon announcement. Is Bolton also on the way out?
More important. What's the policy? How does the U.S. propose to assure that ISIS is driven out of its last redoubt in Syria?
5
So many people are sure that Trump is acting poorly and hastily with this withdrawal, and without a plan. And yet not a single one of those critical has any coherent plan. The irony is not lost. Those that are critical are free to pick up a rifle and gear and head over, but please don't ask my boy to do it until you can articulate a plan.
10
@Jonathan
The plan, as I see it, is for the volunteer army to prevent the spread of ISIS, avoiding a precipitous withdrawal that would do more harm than good.
1
that's not a plan. it's a wish...
what happens IF (a big IF) ISIS is gone. Assad takes over? Kurds?...
I'm ready for your plan; I'll wait.
Several people call Trump as Putin's agent or something like that.
Is there any rational explanation, why the presidents of the richest country on Earth (USA), who is also very rich himself, would be controlled by Russia, which has an economy equlivalent to Italy, and a GDP per capita is quite low? Russia cannot be behind everything, with the resources they have.
4
@Steven, But what if these "resources" include proof of Trump colluding with them to swing the 2016 election? And how can we tell how rich Trump is unless he discloses his IRS income tax records?
6
@Steven The most likely reason why wealthy Trump is controlled by Russia is what has been said by both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, that a very large percentage of the investors in the Trump family business are Russians. Trump won't show us his tax returns and most of us assume it is because he doesn't want us to see who controls him. The other reason is Trump's failed attempts at doing business in Russia, attempts that continued even as he was running for President, attempts that may be continuing even today.
5
@JerryV Many countries are influencing elections in other countries, I do not see here that Russia was doing this more than before, or more than, for instance, the USA does in dozens of other countries.
Most of news about Russian influence in the press are clearly fake --- which makes it difficult to see how large this influence was.
The Podesta email case is even hillarious. They sent him an e-mail, that he has to write in his password. And he did that!
This nonsense one should forget as soon as possible, and not mention all the time as an example of Russian interference. Otherwise democrats make themselves ridiculous.
I think, the main point is that there is a clear reason why democrats lost and they have to learn from that.
1
It looks as though Trump needs to appease his supporters and the Kremlin. It may have upset him that John Bolton strayed from his Syrian policy. And Mike Pompeo had to step in and tell the world that Trump is the commander-in-chief, not Bolton.
The recent development may also reflect the rift between Trump and Bolton, who dictated the terms of US troop withdrawal from Syria, perhaps without consulting his boss. It remains to be seen how Bolton will come to terms with this humiliation.
21
Precisely. it was only a matter of time before Trump undercut his national security advisor. I can only assume from this that Bolton is just not very bright.
Abandoning the Kurds will continue a concerted effort to weaken America. The result of Trump's immigration policy regarding the Middle Eastern states will mean that the next time that American forces are sent there to fight for this country there will be no interpreters or translators. Because of what we are doing to the Kurds and our NATO partners it will be that much harder to have allies on the ground. Just as with his tariffs, he's sticking it to middle America one more time, and they just don't get it.
22
Beckett and Ionesco would have been impressed.
True Theater of the Absurd.
47
They'll end up building and securing the border between USA and Mexico. Nice to see the focus on USA security instead of all those other parasite nations looking for the western world to tie up their shoe laces and fight all their wars for them. USA has lots of its own internal problems it needs to concentrate on. While they're making other nations stronger, they're making their own nation weaker.
13
So on Friday the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry declared:
"It seems like Washington “is looking for a reason to stay,” she said. “I cannot share your confidence that they are leaving there because we never saw an official strategy".
Shortly afterward came the surprise announcement by Col. Ryan, contrary to Bolton's statement, that the US will indeed withdraw from Syria,
What a coincidence.
Once again Trump lets his BFF Putin give the orders and follows like a good little boy.
Not just what but how much dirt has Putin on Trump? That is the question.
62
Trump heard loud and clear from Friends at Fox that he looked weak by not insisting on The Wall from Congress. He knew he needed to start beating his chest for their benefit, hence the no-deal shutdown and now the simplistic roars against Bolton and anybody else who tries to tell this tough guy what to do in Syria. Of course he doesn't have to actually pull out of Syria yet, he only has to look like he's pulling out ("beginning the process"). It serves his purposes for the next five minutes, until he can come up with the next distraction.
In the meantime unemployed American citizens and serving American soldiers over in Syria are nothing but bit players in the latest episode of the continuing reality show scripted to blot out Mueller news and keep his base frothing, complete with slamming tables and storm-out-of-the-meeting stunts, and the stunningly in-your-face hypocrisy of offering humanitarian aid to the very families and children he so cruelly separated last summer.
So help me, if Democrats manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2020 by descending into infighting and losing the prize, which is ridding us of the national catastrophe that is Trump, I'm moving to England, that relative bastion of democracy, stability and calm.
25
@Jenny I don't know how you will be able to move to England. I tried in the 90s and it was near impossible. They have strict requirements. I had my work equipment held without the proper visa. Maybe try Canada.
5
I am not sure it is very calm here at the moment. We are in the final throes of Brexit, with politicians running around squawking like headless chickens (probably headless chickens can't squawk, but you get the idea :-) and nobody knows if we will actually leave the EU or not. Having said that: it probably beats having Mr Trump (and his many dubious claims) as President.
4
@Henry Rawlinson Sorry, my reference to England as stable and calm was tongue-in-cheek. I've been keeping up with the Brexit mayhem. So sorry for you! I fear both our countries may have to fully suffer the results of our bad choices before it can all be fixed.
Thank goodness our withdrawal is "deliberate." I'd hate to think it was the product of whim, or haste, or spite, or lack of any coherent strategy.
Thankfully, with Trump and Bolton at the helm, and with those know-it-all generals pushed to the sidelines where they belong, we have nothing to worry about on that score. These two men are the very embodiment of coherence. Like FDR and Marshall, Trump and Bolton inspire confidence just by being there.
21
If not deliberate, an accident?
@alexander hamilton
I love irony.
I think Syrian pullout is a really good thing. Thank you Mr. President.
17
I agree with Trump. We need to be out of there, from Pakistan to Beirut. It's not our part of the world. We've been fighting there for almost 18 years and have accomplished—what?
So we will leave. But I think about those 4,000 American soldiers who gave their lives for, again—what?
Let Putin and Natanyahu deal with it. And the mullahs in Tehran. And Modi, too. They've all had such great success in dealing with fundamentalist Islam.
We have no business there.
17
@Bob Burns It became our part of the world on 9/11. Thanks to the men and women who gave their lives, 9/11 has not been repeated.
Another concerning example of our non-existant and failed foreign policy. Trump's slimy hand on the State Department and now hacks Bolton and Pompeo look like fools as they try to decipher the wannabe general's (aka Trump) current thinking and do something other than pander to knee-jerk directives. The Islamic State is dormant, not done, and our corroboration with the Kurdish forces should remain until some clear and sensible plan is formulated, with most likely Turkey, lest we witness the region plunge into a renewed struggle for territory and our Kurdish allies left to fend for themselves against Erdogan's army. I guess we now witness that smug Bolton also has little credibility as his, what looked to be the semblance of a rational plan, has now been dashed and it's not hard to guess that Trump's bizarre directives have left Bolton and Pompeo with egg on their face, and once again shown the international community that we have no foreign policy that is coherent or rational.
36
Chaos isn’t the right word to describe this administration. It’s rank incompetence.
We’ve experienced poorly thought out and executed domestic policies.
Poorly thought out, conflicting and damaging international policies.
We and our allies receive mixed messages from every quarter. It seems children are running the government.
The mostly B team in this administration is now being replaced by the C team. But I don’t think even that is accurate because even historically “average” cabinet officials and president would be an improvement over what he have now.
47
Even if there were no other examples, Syria alone is reason enough for other nations to conclude there is absolutely no reason to believe ANYTHING said by the U.S. government. Whether it's outright lies, lack of consistency, impulsiveness, multi-polar decision-making, imprecise communications, or intentional confusion doesn't really matter anymore. The king of chaos at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be the epicenter for instability as long as he occupies the office.
47
Everything Trump does is for optics designed to allow him to boast to his base that he kept his campaign promises. So it wouldn’t surprise me if the “commencement” of withdrawal of US troops from Syria consists of a token movement of maybe a couple of soldiers towards the exit - much the same way that airlines have departing aircraft move off their blocks a few feet (and then stop) so that the airline can claim that a flight had an on-time “departure.”
13
I have been one to criticize the media for covering this dumpster fire of an administration---giving far too much oxygen to the smoldering incompetence of his office. Having said that, the war in Syria is serious stuff and does demand attention, but, the story, as always with Trump, is not about the war, the goals, the strategy...no...the story becomes a comedy of who is on first, what is on second, and no manager in the dugout.
20
Coming so soon after Mike Pompeo's gratuitous cheap shots from the podium at former President Barack Obama (whose Syria policy was, to be fair, pretty muddled), this latest surprise development is... all too predictable. As the late Casey Stengel asked plaintively about his woeful New York Mets, "Can't ANYBODY here play this game?"
13
Well, Trump in all of his bombastic and self-aggrandizing glory, proclaimed he knows more than the generals.
We shall see, but, I have my doubts that Bone Spurs is much of a general.
7
I am glad to see that we are starting the withdrawal. Our presence there was illegal. If you send your military into another country without their permission you are an INVADER.
We had no legal right to be in Syria and we are doing the right thing to leave. Let the Syrians decide for themselves what they wont. The US will try an impose a government WE WANT on them without any consideration of what the Syrians want.
17
@judyweller Fair point, but what exactly do you mean by what the Syrians want? What do they want? Who are they, in terms of the people making those decisions? How is that going to be determined and then carried out? If "they" are in a position to determine that for themselves and carry it out, and the instability and warfare threatens the international stability and security, then don't regional and global powers have an interest in stabilizing that situation? In fact, it would be pretty easy to argue that superpowers like the United States have not only an interest but a responsibility to restore order in situations like this. In fact, if you read the end of the article, the author points out that this withdrawal will only make it easier for other regional powers to clash in Syria over their own selfish interests.
5
@Matthew H. If the withdrawal will open up other tensions between the neighboring countries, so be it. We are talking about a region that is 6000 miles away from the USA. It's been over 17 years since 9/11 has happened and we are to believe the US has to be militarily present, defending military bases and dropping bombs, inthe name of freedom? Region conflicts are to be solved by the region members. It is, as Judy points out not of the business of USA to meddle in every existing conflict in the world. In the 18 years that have passed since 9/11 thousands of civilians as well as American soldiers have been wounded or lost their lives due to conflicts where the US has been actively involved. For what?
6
@Matthew H. Syria has a legitimate, recognized government. Let them handle the problem. And Yes I know that Russia will be there, but the Russians were invited in and we were not - we were illegal invaders.
1
Note that no article you read in the corporate press mentions that the US military presence in Syria is in flagrant violation of international law. The US military being there has not been authorized by the UN or by the legitimate Syrian government. But of course that doesn't matter because the US is the "exceptional" country for whom the rules of international behavior simply do not apply.
19
@David Hamilton
Why do you think it's not been possible to get an appropriate resolution through the UN
Do you think it might have something to do with Russia's veto in the UN?
6
@Lazza May China would also be quite happy to veto such authorization. And if votes in the General Assembly are any indication, the US would have a very hard time getting their aggression authorized regardless. Sounds like you have a bad case of Russiaphobia.
2
@Lazza May
So that makes it OK then.
I am reluctant to believe that Trump is actually compromised, but it’s difficult not to connect the Kremilin’s displeasure with neocon Bolton’s assertion that ISIS is not really vanquished and the U.S prescence in Syria will contine with this sudden acceleration of troop removal. Putin let it be known what he wants, and the president has acceded. It’s frightening, to put it mildly.
15
Withdrawing American troops from Syria is a far more dangerous and delicate strategic military manuever operation than American warriors entering Syria in the first place.
The roots of 9/11/01 began with America arming, financing and training the men who would found al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban in their fight against the Soviet Union then abandoning Afghanistan to their malign machinations. Since 9/11 a mere 0.75% of Americans have volunteered to wear the military uniform of any American armed force. And they have been ground to emotional, mental and physical dust by repeated deployments in ethnic sectarian civil wars that have no military solution.
Misunderstanding the ethnic sectarian roots of the Syrian Civil War is worse than ignorance about those key factors. The Syrian Alawite Shia Muslim Arab minority are allied with the Syrian Christian minority and they are among the most effective implacable motivated foes of the Sunni Muslim Wahhabi Arab extremist terrorist likes of al Qaeda and ISIS.
With America withdrawing from Syria it is not likely that Donald, Jr. nor Eric Trump nor Jared Kushner nor Ted Cruz nor Marco Rubio nor Tucker Carlson nor Sean Hannity nor Ivanka Trump nor Tiffany Trump nor Laura Ingraham nor Ann Coulter nor Fox and Friends nor Rush Limbaugh nor Steve Miller are heading to the Syrian frontlines.
16
This is good policy done in the worst way possible. The number of mixed signals just on Syria in the past few weeks is staggering. I fear where American foreign policy and stance will be at the end of Trump's first term.
11
This administration will be remembered for destroying the credibility of the United States with every nation in the world, and will have the blood of the Kurds as an indelible stain on it. Mitch McConnell should also go down in history as the person who did more to turn the Senate, in particular, into an us vs. them by his tyrannical assault on fairness while Senate minority and majority leader.
It was McConnell who stated his mission was to keep Obama from being reelected, who refused to allow votes on Obama's judicial nominees, thereby creating a serious backlog in the federal judiciary and forcing Harry Reid to abolish the 60% rule in order to resolve it, and refused to consider the appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court and leaving the court short-handed for almost a year.
If this country and its ideals waivers and perhaps becomes an autocracy, historians will point to this time as the beginning of the end.
61
the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in our selves. and by our selves, I mean, Mitch McConnell. and by McConnell, I mean his backers who manage to keep him in his seat term after term, despite a paltry 30% approval rating among his voters.
2
The issue, believe it or not, is not whether immediate withdrawal is a good idea. The administration is a car careening at high speed and the fact it is momentarily swerving in the correct direction is no consolation knowing that it will soon swerve in a different direction, and eventually crash.
14
(Google translation from Russian) Such confusion over Mr. Trump's withdrawal of your fine troups from Syria is part of our esteemed leader's plan to assume complete control of the region by March. Mr. Trump is being guided by Mr. Putin but unfortunately does not accurately understand and follow the plan. We expected good things from Mr. Trump but he seems to not be capable of doing the right things at the right time. He will learn.
33
@ ˈDäktər Kiska Kakashka
Mostly right, but while he never forgets, he never learns.
3
if he hasn't managed to learn anything in the past 72 years, he is not going to start now. give it up, Ivan. ps, he stiffed you on the condo, too.
I guess the new foreign policy of the US is something along the lines of: "Let´s confuse ISIS about us staying , then let´s confuse our allies and Russia at the same time, then we call Erdogan and claim we are with him , - and then "No!" - and then let´s confuse a few more allies in the battle zone and add our home front for good measure. After all this we Them let´s show the Kurds that we are not trustworthy - or perhaps not always. And then send out Pompeo and Bolton and let them make contradicting statements - just to add some confusion. And then we call this STRATEGY!"
30
@Wolfgang … and I included some typos to add to the confusion. My apologies to all readers.
1
@Wolfgang
Yep. There used to be a Monthy Python episode where a troupe of actors offered their services called “confuse a cat”.
Reality replicating comedy.
5
@Wolfgang
Multi-dimensional chess that only MENSA stable genius types can fully comprehend. Unless you are #45 or Stephen Hawking this is beyond you.
If we abandon the Syrian Kurds I believe we will come to regret it. The Turks and Russians love the Trump middle eastern foreign policy.
8
@Rob D
Nobody making the important decisions care about the subjects of the tragedies they create. Kurds, unfortunately, are such subjects and have been for so long. Even Saladin who was Kurdish worked for Arab masters.
What a pity the whole thing is.
3
There are many things I deeply dislike about Donald Trump. But I do enjoy and like his independence on some issues of foreign and trade policy. I disagreed with the embassy in Jerusalem, I applauded the North Korean approach, I was appalled at the tearing up of the Iranian agreement and I support his heavy hand stance towards China trade .
The military stablishment lives in the past and has a reaction function that may make sense militarily, but that often does not fit broader objectives. The same applies to the old school hardliners in key diplomatic and security advisory positions in the Trump administration.
Syria can not be handle by these types. The US can not be part of long standing conflicts many of which have deep religious roots. These are not ours to fight !!!! We have interest we need to protect, but we must be mindful of the fine line that exists between advancing our agenda and making ours the fights of others.. NO !!! We will not fight those wars for them.
Bolton is outright poison in the same way as Rice, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and Cheney were. I am glad the President sidelines and undermines him at almost every turn.
Bring our soldiers from Syria !!!
10
@Juan Briceno
Though I share much of your ambivalence and skepticism concerning our militaristic foreign policy, I can't possibly think for an instant that an occasional 'correct' instinct from the dysfunctional Trump administration is worth keeping it around a moment longer - for the sake of America and every other nation and species.
The Fox White House is more like the broken clock that one can depend upon for correct time twice a day, 14 times a week, 56 times a month... and how useful is that, really? Is it worth all the incorrect moments in a day, week, month, year? Could any of us make any kind of progress in life as individuals or collectively as societies if our version of time-keeping was -for practically all intents and purposes - well-nigh infinitely chaotic? I don't think so. We need to change the clock ASAP so that progress on so many fronts can once again happen.
In a house with a failed clock there can be no true sense of history - which explains a lot about the Fox White House...
1
Just another day in the insanity and chaos that is Mr. Trump's presidency. International relations and the stock market are always calmed by "surprise announcements."
Whatever the advantages or disadvantages of leaving Syria are, such unpredictability is not a sign of craftiness or strength. It is a sign that President Trump doesn't know much about anything (but thinks he does), is swayed by the last person to talk to him (particularly if he hears Fox News), and has no clue how foreign policy works.
17
It sounds as if Putin is directing Trump on our Foreign Policy.
While I am no fan of John Bolton, it appears that he is being undercut by Trump. How long before he leaves?
If our presence is in our National or Global interest, why are we leaving?
If not, why are we there?
Does anyone have these answers?
16
@Jean
Our presence in Syria is of NO national interest to the US.
Every flashpoint in the Middle East is a combination of sectarian/tribal conflict and Western meddling that inflames the former.
We should be rejoicing that 2,000 American families are being reunited.
5
Trump has all the answers. just ask him.
@Jean Undercut by Trump?
You have that backwards...
1
So...maybe definitely we are leaving?
10
So Trump's message in short order to Israel and the Kurds is: "I don't love you, I do love you, I don't." Who can keep up? Certainly not Bolton nor Pompeo.
9
The pullout isn't fast enough. The greatest threat to world peace is STILL the US government. We have known this since the 1960s.
10
The U.S. should get out; save the $ and build the wall.
1
@Jan so Jan should would build the north wall first, since there are more undesirables coming into the US that way than thru the south. or are you just for building a wall somewhere because your leader thinks we should, even if its all about a campaign promise. did you hear about the tunnel they showed trump that was dug under an existing wall/fence location. Who knew that could happen; everyone did.
2
We need to leave Syria - it's been a waste of taxpayer money and has not lessened ISIS' presence in the world.
We need to leave Iraq - it's been a waste of taxpayer money as the region is as unstable as it ever was.
We need to leave Afghanistan - trillions wasted on a corrupt regime with Taliban control stronger than ever.
We need to stop these meaningless wars which have been supported by a militaristic Pentagon that has no conception of diplomacy and peace.
17
So many problems with your statements. Taliban do not have more control in Afghanistan than ever before. They had free rein and were able to organize 9/11 attack before. They are still there but much weaker due to our presence. Iran is more of a mess since we invaded under false pretenses. However complete withdrawal would lead to more chaos in the region which only helps ISIS. It can be debated whether we ever should have entered Syria. However we did and the Kurds helped us and now our withdrawal leaves them high and dry. Will anyone support us in the future if this is how we treat our friends?
3
@Christi Terry
Answer to your last question: no, not in a long while and not while this weirdo Trump is your "Commander-in-Chief" . (I even have difficulties using this term for him.)
@Christi Terry
The Taliban employ between 30,000-40,000 Afghans to cultivate poppy and to manufacture opium - which is converted to heroin. It’s the largest opium market in the world and is controlled by the Taliban. Estimated record revenues in 2018 were approximately $1 billion - the Taliban are stronger than ever - they will be there long after US forced leave the desolate country.
Are we allowed to know the policy on this? First, we’re leaving, then we’re slowing down based on conditions. Now we’re leaving again. Trump talks to Erdogan - we’re leaving, Ergodon rebukes Bolton, so we have to go?. Who’s in charge here?
19
The first sentence of this article is misleading at best - one pinocchio. There's no mention of troop movement, only that the process has begun. That "process" requires careful planning of moving troops and equipment in a manner that assures the safety of all personnel. It could be months or even years before we actually see any of our troops come home.
5
I'll repeat what I said on Sunday when I first heard Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, say that the pullout would be gradual and was conditional on circumstances, and that American forces would remain for at least more months before any withdrawal began, and troops could remain for years.
"No way will that happen. Bolton can say anything he wants, but thanks to Kompromat, which means Vladimir Putin is holding Trump's leash and calling the shots here, the pullout will start immediately just as per Putin's orders to 'Donald'."
No one should be the least bit surprised. Now comes the part where the Kurds, our steadfast allies, are forced to release over 3,200 of ISIS's most brutal and dangerous terrorists which they've been holding. The Kurds will then need to flee since the entire region is being handed over to Putin via his fellow despot and local proxy Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has little incentive to go after ISIS. (Let's not forget that it was Erdogan who let ISIS fighter pass freely through Turkey in the first place). However, there's no question that Erdogan's number one priority will be to brutally murder all of our Kurdish allies in the region.
It is heartbreaking, disgusting, and endangers America, but not the least bit surprising, especially as we just learned that in 2106 Paul Manafort, at the time Trump's campaign manager, met with Russian intelligence to "strategize" and share "internal polling information" to aid of Trump's presidential bid.
15
We need to stop the snark and applaud Trump (!) for starting the drawdown of troops from the Middle East. I don't like much about him but he has kept his word on this, something that Barack (who I worked hard to get elected) did not. We need to focus on our country, not carrying water for brutal dictatorships like Saudi Arabia.
6
@Rick
Haven't we heard enough criticism of President Obama's withdrawal of troops from Iraq and hesitance to deploy them in Syria to remember those events occurred?
1
This is classic Donald Trump. He just announces policy on the spur of the moment, often on Twitter. Then AFTER the problems surface, his staff is sent out to clean up the mess and craft a new policy that takes into account... well...reality. Except, now - in addition to crafting a policy that should have been carefully put together after long deliberation and consultation - they have to craft it in such a way that at it at least bears some resemblance to the original statement. Oh, and do this with a staff that's constantly changing.
No wonder the White House resembles a daycare just before nap time.
13
I am disappointed that the journalist did not mention U.S. foreign policy concerns about limiting Iranian influence in this area. Also, that an ally, Israel, is involved in these issues.... What will happen to the Kurdish forces who fought alongside US forces.... Seems like the US sacrificed a good deal in Syria, and then just abruptly leaves without trying to secure a decent resolution.
5
The man who could have given us the correct timetable for US withdrawal from Syria is Vladimir Putin. Next time, ask him.
139
Better Vlad wastes HIS blood and treasure than we continue to waste ours.
1
Given our recent history I would imagine that Trump already has asked Putin. And gotten his marching orders.
Trump doesn't like to telegraph his military actions because he doesn't want ISIS and his own military leaders to know it.
35
@RP Smith makes sense, though he deosnt seem to want the American people, our allies or the military to know either. Keeping quiet would be a better technique than saying one thing, then having a crony say another and then apparently contradicting everyone.
2
@RP Smith
Right. Just like he does not want his national security advisor or secretary of state to know either.....
1
Not sure if it’s dizziness or whiplash that anyone observing the Trump Administration actions is experiencing...maybe both!
15
Aside from Trump, Pompeo and Bolton, all of whom i have issues of disagreement. The U.S should be out of Syria even if other countries decide to stay.
After all that has been said, done,damaged and killed, this is a religious war with the Alawite sect running a country composed of mostly sunni muslims.
This problem started with the death of Muhammad and those people have been fighting each other ever since then.
Any outside country, choosing to enter that religious war will enter a mess that has been going on for centuries.
If a leader of the United States(no matter who) finally decides
to remove us from all that, he made the right decision even if his name is Trump.
We are not in Syria because of the goodness out of our own heart.
We are there to "get" Isis before they "get "us which is a military plan cooked up by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush to be used against Iraq and Saddam Hussein. That unnecessary war lasted for eight years with deaths still continuing from that mistake.
It's high time to get out of Syria with it's religious disagreements which has been going on for centuries.
12
The blind leading the blind, ie Trump and Bolton.
Not getting directly involved in foreign wars that do not directly threaten American like the Mexican, Spanish American, WW1, Vietnam, Iraq 2 etc is a good thing.
Withdrawing completely from Syria or Afghanistan completely without monitoring ISIS or Bin Laden's group, groups that attacked us is stupidity.
We should only get involved in these conflicts in a humanitarian way or if genocide, mass torture or a war time crime is committed that a majority of the world can agree upon and then preferably in a multi lateral way.
Also we should join the Intl. War Crime Tribunal in The Hague and begin to hunt down people like Assad, or any other leaders accused of war crimes including the admitted war criminal Bush 2 in our country.
8
Obama never had congressional authority to go in nor to drone kill all of the people he did. Bring our troops home. Stop the killing and droning of people.
12
House of cards. You just cannot make this stuff up. It would be laughable if it weren't real. Cannot dispute the wiseness of this decision but the way in which we conduct ourselves threatens credibility and integrity. From what I've learned in everything I've done, those 2 elements form the basis for national defense; without those 2 items, even the strongest military fold.
4
Perhaps the government shutdown blocked all communication between Trump and the DoD? Or between Trump and Bolton? Or perhaps Trump is so obsessed with The Wall, he forgot to rescind his withdrawal order??
14
This is a big prize for Turkey, which Trump is offering for free.
I don't see anything being given in return: not the guarantees for Kurdish safety that Bolton asked for (while getting door slammed in his face in Ankara); not a real Turkish strategy to ensure that ISIS never comes back; not even the simplest promise to ensure that Turkey buys NATO-made weapons. Erdogan has convinced Trump that he's the real victim here, and the US owes him. Apparently, this strategy works, and the Army knows it can't override its Commander-in-Chief.
10
@J.D. Parker
Its disappointing how little comment this produces these days, but Trump has been raiding America's storehouse and giving away all her treasures since the he took office.
While he has been preserving the Republican charade of of tough-talking militarism, he has been slipping our integrity, our influence, our ability to act effectively, and our secrets to to whatever convenient evil dictator is lounging under table at his feet.
Trump is aggressively making sure that, whether he or his ilk are in office, America will find itself friendless and neutered on the world stage for decades to come.
Whether by traitorous design, as the FBI during the election (no, not just Comey), or through impenetrable arrogance and incompetence, America's intelligence and law-enforcement institutions have abetted this process for years. Its all politics around here these days, politics and money.
3
@J.D. Parker - The Kurds will align themselves with Assad. They aren't mortal enemies to begin with, and most of the Kurds' fighting has been against radical islamists in ISIS anyway. In fact, the Kurds and Assad have a common ally among the country's large Christian militias. Assad is a mass murdering monster, but his more secular nature make such an alliance possible.
Seems incredibly obvious to me; ISIS forces won't attack the Kurds because the United States will bomb them the moment they step into any Kurdish populated areas. The Kurds want their own country (and why not?) They have a relatively stable area to live in, and did I read that parts are even tourist spots?
The Kurds need their own country. They have their war camp that still hates the Turks (and the Kurds living in Turkey seem relatively OK with it. So. How can the military industrial complex start another war? Easy. Withdraw US support. Different factions will the attack the Kurds, Turkey will be on the other side and, the peaceful Kurdish will be drawn back into tribal hatred. The obvious thing to do is to give the Kurdish people their own country (why do we need a war to redraw maps?), with the promise that if sectarian and national hatred would have to be stopped from the start.
This is an incredibly blatant attempt to start another endless war for the world's arms dealers.
The only trouble? Oil in the new Kurdistan and US troops and air cover in case of attacks, which should be UN troops, who will, as always, do nothing.
7
Can someone please explain how Kurdish forces - US-backed allies in Syria - pose a national security threat to Turkey, a fellow NATO member?
The answer I believe is that they are not, and Edrogan is just looking to seize the oil-rich region.
18
"The Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies want the territory back for several reasons: its oil deposits; its agricultural land; reopening the border with Iraq; and reunification of the country, which has been shattered by a war that began in 2011."
But why not underline that that territory was and still is part of the Syria country, abusively occupied by foreign forces?
While so many governments boast about border security and territorial sovereignty, why should we deny this target to the Syrian government, which has not been overthrown by the rebel forces?
7
Does this mean we can't stay in another sovereign Middle East country that we invaded, illegally, uninvited by its government? Seriously? Well, can we at least continue with our secret CIA covert program (code name Timber Sycamore) started by Obama in 2013 with the Saudis and continue funneling weapons to al Qaeda and ISIS who are trying to overthrow Assad?
15
"one of the Middle East’s most complex battlefields"
It might better be termed "confused" or "chaotic."
Complex implies system and intelligent organization. There is none of that in Syria. It is more "grown like Topsy" with no knowledge of any plan.
The US and allies pumped in support for chaotic terrorists, then tried to control some of them with others of them, all the while trying to keep going the terror against Assad. It never made sense, nor was even meant to make sense beyond killing and killing.
11
Any one recall the Kurdish threat to release 3000 Isis prisoners? So we build a 70 billion dollar cement, no steel, no cement, no steel wall on our border with Mexico and watch Isis regroup. Isn't it great to have Trump as our leader?
42
Attention: Another fake new alert from the trump administration. Yes we are, and no we are not.
Yes we are not, and yes we are.
Yes the man "with the very good brain, who knows more than the generals," has it all figured out.
47
Let's see what Lindsey Graham says now. Didn't he said trump his savior was going to slow the withdrawal from Syria. I can't wait to hear his response. I hope he is so embarrassed that he will only have one choice - and that is to help impeach the incompetent trump.
28
@dupr
The Senator is too busy groveling for the wall to notice.
9
The US intervened in violation of international law and without congressional approval. Syria wants the land back because it is part of Syria. Russia and Iran are there because extremist jihadi proxy forces have been inflicted on the country to overthrow Assad's regime. The sectarian divide in Syria was crudely manipulated by the US, Israel and their Persian Gulf friends.
14
@c harris -- "Russia and Iran are there because extremist jihadi proxy forces have been inflicted"
Their motives are more complex, but also more legal by all established standards.
They were invited by the government, which needed help.
The Russians were already there, as part of a longstanding defense relationship going back to before the 1967 War. Their interests are many, and not at all focused on the oft-mentioned Tartus naval base, which is what Western interests might be interested in, not what Russia is.
The Russians fear the short land connection from Syria to the Muslim regions of Russia. They find the air bases useful for staging flights. They find influence in the midst of the oil regions useful diplomatically, even if Syria itself has no substantial oil. The Soviets found a secular leader helpful against the sectarian leadership elsewhere that was so hostile to the atheist USSR, and that relationship has solidified.
The Iranians seen as a defensive design need to keep Syria between themselves and Israel. Of course paranoid Israeli thinking sees only threats to them, even as they threaten others, but the balance of forces puts realism on the side of Iranian defensiveness.
8
We should all join the President and Liz Warren in getting out of these miserable wars. When did the Democrats become a coalition with the McCain/Cheney Neocons in promoting all these rotten Wars?. The Democrats got us out of the miserable Vietnam war and used to be against these military interventions - what happened?. Do we want to empower these Kurds the wanton enemy of our ally Turkey. They want to create a country out of northern Syria - who wants that?.
7
@Larry -- When?
First, they oppose anything Trump does. If he does something right by accident, they'll insist on doing wrong by design.
Second, hawks dominated the establishment Democrats since Scoop Jackson. He first recruited a young Hillary to be part of that. She was a committed hawk her whole political life, and during the last campaign, recruiting the former Dubya neocons to her side against Trump.
Democrats do it for the military industrial connection to their districts/states. They do it for the campaign money. They do it for Israel, meaning again campaign money. They do it from pure arrogance -- they've no monopoly on arrogance, but not lack of it either.
10
I'm confused. Did Trump talk to Erdogan or Putin again?
What is our policy? Who is Trump being "advised" by?
Nothing, nothing coming from this administration is ever clear, straightforward or well defined. Positions change faster than the stock market ticker tape.
Daily confusion, lies and total lack of accountability are the hallmarks of this administration.
And the umbrella over all this confusion is a total disregard for the safety of people.
45
@Elizabeth
It's really a simple decision. War isn't the answer.
6
Who made this decision? President Trump? National Security Advisor John Bolton? Or Fox host Sean Hannity?
Who's running this shop?
96
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,
Who's running this shop?
Based on what we have seen of late, militarily and politically, one can only be glad it isn't our Generals...because it isn't.
The shiny silver lining in all this is the Republican party has finally proven to all those who have been benighted, or just not watching, that they really have no clue how to run an army.
As one should reflexively expect of these Republican jokers, all their military-tough-guy stance was just hiding their fancy gloves and lacy underwear.
Which is OK, I suppose, now that their Real-American-rugged-individualist defenders of Freedom have opted to hate the army and prepare for The Revolution.
5
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,
Putin.
3
Well, it appears that John Bolton has about as much influence on Trump's decision-making as Michael Bolton...
But hey, look on the bright side John... at least YOU are still getting a pay-check!
101
The Kurds of the YPG and PKK heroically fought against and defeated ISIS in many battles, including at Kobani, where at least half of the fighters were women. The others were just our Kurdish mercenaries who showed up to take credit after the fighting was over. The uncertainty over the withdrawal has to do with our pulling out and abandoning all of the Kurds and forcing them to make peace with Syria and Russia. Trump would like to get out without seeming to hurt the Kurds, and Bolton is still bent on our American Empire running the whole world using helping an ally as a disguise.
Trump is despicable in so many ways but what is most disgusting is how the mainstream media calls Trump "Presidential" when he bombs Syria and a traitor when he wants to stop wasting American lives and resources overseas (even if it likely is for the wrong reason). Since when did we take on the role of running the whole world when we cannot even conduct elections in our own country without Republican vote suppression and rigging and establishment Democrat primary vote rigging? In the meantime, the two things do go together: running all of the world, including the U.S., for the benefit of a few families.
11
@Timshel -- Those Kurds had a peace deal with Assad, for autonomy and protection from Turkey. He'd set that up in a military confrontation with Turkey that he settled with Erdogan two decades ago, when Turkey was starting its then policy of “Zero Problems with the Neighbors.”
The US enticed the Kurds away from that with dreams of independence. Of course those were always both unrealistic and unauthorized as policy, just lies used to recruit.
Now the Kurds are back where they never should have left. Their problem is they trusted us, and let that lead them into greed.
6
DJT ran on a promise to reduce the global influence of the U.S., putting America First. He was assigned the office of POTUS by the Electoral College after he lost the popular vote to the star-crossed Ms. Secretary Clinton. Now he seems confused about how to dismantle our relationships with other countries in any orderly way (if there is one), but he has certainly not abandoned his dangerous, screwball idea.
9
Although we should withdraw from Syria in a manner and at a time that is strategic, this drawdown is tragically flawed in both time and manner. This immediate move demanded by Trump benefits Russia and Iran in every way, and will further destabilize the Middle East with potentially cataclysmic long-term consequences. The most appalling immediate consequence is what is going to happen to the Kurdish Forces who have steadfastly been our allies and been the most effective forces against ISIL. Shame on the cowardly Republicans in Congress who continue to let Trump shred decency and weaken our nation. With every move he has made, our allies increasingly feel that they cannot depend on us and our enemies know that we have no leadership in the White House, which makes for very dangerous times.
8
This is an outrage! We’re an Empire! We should be invading the world and inviting the world, and now we have Trump, who’s keeping his deplorable campaign promises and putting an end to both!
Don’t worry though. We’ll elect a good imperialist in 2020. Someone who can open the borders again, and use American troops to protect everyone but Americans. Flyover country of course will hate it, but they’re the ones who provide the troops and lose jobs and wages when we invite the world and invade the world. Empires have their winners and losers. This is just a fact of life!
8
Who didn’t see THAT coming? As soon as Bolton said a withdrawal could take months or even years, he was a dead man walking. As usual, the next few days will reveal the backstory as to how this happened. Cue the quotes from anonymous sources inside the White House about Trump’s fits of rage, furious rants, cursing, and name calling after Bolton made his statement contradicting Trump. I predict Bolton will “resign” very soon.
66
@Frau Greta -- "I predict Bolton will “resign” very soon."
I hope. Unfortunately, he is a knife fighter who never gives up in the bureaucratic jungle fights. He'll go down screaming.
10
Pompeo said the same thing yesterday...literally as the equipment was being hauled out!
1
Well, we can certainly hope so.
1
What I would like to know is how exactly our president is communicating with Putin to inform him of exactly what Putin wishes him to do, within presidential power.
Of course, even more, I would like to know exactly what Putin has on Trump that forces this behavior.
77
It seems to me that Trump doesn't believe the world is real. That's why he can simply follow his whims and have no regard for consequences. It also explains why he feels he can lie 24 hours/day, and it really doesn't matter. It's as though you woke up in your dream, realized it was a dream, and thought, hey! this is a dream! I can do whatever I want because none of it is real!
Except, it IS real, Mr. President. These are real people's lives who are profoundly affected by the whims you act out on. This world is NOT a dream. And unfortunately, your irresponsible and thoughtless actions more and more are turning it into a nightmare. And all of us, in the US and around the world, are waiting for this national nightmare to end, and soon!
41
@David:Are you serious the President has been clear about this even as a candidate. He wanted them out in April but the Neocons talked him out of it then just like they talked President Obama out of it. The military never want to get out of wars and if it was up them we'd still be in Vietnam. Even Liz Warren wants out of these rotten intervention in foreign Civil wars which have never been truly authorized by Congress.
5
@Larry There is never any thought or planning behind Trump's actions. On the contrary, there is always a complete lack of coordination between Trump and his advisers. And remember, Trump has no qualifications to be running a country or making complex military decisions. The best we can hope for is that he listens to the advice of the experts he has appointed. And yet, he never does. Whether one is in favor of US military intervention in Syria or not, this is no way to enact policy. No one on either side of this debate should feel good about the way the US under Trump has been going about this process.
27
@David:Didn't Dwight D Eisenhower once say don't trust the Generals?. Yes unless you favor the continued daily killings going on over there by our coalition then you should support getting out now. The military never wanted to leave Vietnam and wanna invade Iran and North Korea.
2
Not long ago (before Trump) I argued that neocons' penchant to send American troops into conflict without an exit strategy was misguided and people like Bolton were a menace. I would tell anyone who would listen that it was time to bring the troops home. Now, my thinking has reversed, I agree with Bolton and believe that removing the troops from Syria is a mistake.
Trump has made me question even the most basic of my former foreign policy beliefs and see former political demons as the ones now in this administration with some semblance of rationality and heroes just because they buck Trump.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to trust my own judgement because I recognize, in some repressed corner of my reason, that Trump issuing his endlessly ridiculous decrees as President has warped my mind so much I just want him to just lose on everything until he finally exits the stage no matter what I believed before.
23
I have always agreed that our involvement in this region was misguided, ill informed and ultimately an unfortumate adventure. Millions have suffered. But here we are.
I wonder what it feels like to be soldier in the field to hear so many conflicting reports about the American mission. Of course, coming home would be the best news.
Since it is an established FACT that there are still thousands of ISIS fighters in the area, what should we think about Trumps fabrication that the job is done?
What major power benefits when we leave? Is this another favor from one president to another?
How many times will we abandon the Kurds after using them for our own purposes?
What should other nations think about our foreign policy and the commitments we have made in the past - especially when the messages from the president, the secretary of state and the national security advisor are all different?
Am I the only one who feels like we are tumbling down a rabbit hole of chaos? Should we be worried or terrified?
249
@Bob Bruce Anderson:Where do you think the ISIS fighters came from? probably from the local villages. Are you gonna kill all the villagers that don't agree with the rotten corrupt governments in that area?. ISIS is probably the worst group but doubt they are any threat to the US. If the Iraqi government with the trillions of dollars the US has put in there can't fight off this small group left then it's time we high tail it out of there. Remember it was Bush Jr with his buddies Cheney and Rumsfeld that created ISIS from the rotten WMD war they started.
15
I vote for "terrified" because your well reasoned conclusion applies not only to foreign policy, but to every aspect of our government, foreign and domestic. Apparently our only hope is that Mitch McConnell will suddenly reverse his role as leader of the do nothing party (tax cuts for his wealthy donor class exempted) and assume his duties as senate "leader." In other words, there is no hope. So terrified it is.
20
@Bob Bruce Anderson
Millions have suffered because we armed to the teeth groups of anti Assad rebels (who many of which turned out to be ISIS). We hoped to over throw his regime probably to install a Egyptian style repressive one so we will have "our guy " in charge.
If there are thousands of ISIS in the field Assad will finish them off and we are also not wanted there by Syria.
The secular and democratic country of Syria had an alliance with Iran and Russia long before this action. Who cares what major power benefits or what other think ? It's our blood and treasure on the line.
Trump promised he wouldn't get involved in Syria before elected. He has made the right decision.
10
The troops are needed...to build a fence. It's interesting how all of Trumps move seem to serve tyrants, in this case Erdagon, Assad, Putin. It will not give the Kurds any cover. I don't get what the Bolton announcement was about, but watching this administration is dizzying. Still, I don't think it's a bad thing to get out of these endless, winless wars. I am fairly certain that middle east peace will not come in my lifetime.
8
Less than a day after Secretary of State Pompeo gave a speech in which he said that "when America retreats, chaos follows", and less than a week after John Bolton traveled the region to reassure allies that troops would not leave Syria without a plan to protect the Kurds, troops are, in fact, retreating. This shows a stunning lack of coherence in our foreign policy. Now that it is clear that both our National Security Advisor and our top diplomat are out of the loop in terms of US foreign policy, how will the US be able to engage in any type of good faith negotiation with other countries?
422
@Ann Mitch McConnell, Pence and the GOP Senators are culpable as well. They are standing down when they are needed the most.
25
The only reasonable explanation is that Trump received further orders from Putin.
20
@Ann "Lack of coherence" is the trade mark of the man in the Oval.
And it's getting worse after being boxed into a corner under his desk.
10
These troops may have been required for emergency border wall building duties. It's just a matter of priorities.
31
God bless America. Thank you Mr. President for being the commander-in-chief during a well defined formidable mission to evict the barbaric and brutal religious terrorist caliphate out of their cradle and stomping ground for now and beginning an orderly withdrawal to bring US troops home with their heads held high. Thanks a million to the brave US troops and the generals who commanded the troops in Syria.
The speech yesterday by the Secretary of state Pompeo in Cairo clearly defining the middle east Trump policy of the USA and admitting the mistakes (colossal blunders in my opinion) during the George W. Bush and Obama years championed by the likes of Sen. John McCain was a breath of fresh air and I applaud that. Through out the Bush and Obama years I have been troubled by the useless and costly wars that have resulted in 1000s of deaths of US troops and 1000s others returning with serious head injuries and PTSD or loss of function of body parts. In addition the astounding civilian deaths that these wars caused was an atrocity on humanity and devastation of infrastructure and homes in these countries. The epic migration of millions of innocent helpless people leaving their bombed out homelands will remain a permanent stain on those who caused it mercilessly.
The world is a better place today than it was 2 years ago. Yes the Russian influence in Syria will be greatly enhanced because they stood by their boy through thick and thin. So what? Syria was not ours to mess with.
6
No one speaks for Trump. Just take orders and execute it. That is the characteristics of a dictator. Trump loves dictators. Bolton tenure will soon come to an end. Pulling out of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq is the right thing to do. The ever ballooning defense budget need to be cut.
9
I know all the arguments why our leaving Syria is a bad idea, but it’s still a joy to hear that American soldiers are coming home.
12
Trump says we're withdrawing, Bolton says we're staying. Sarah Sanders says both of those are true and if we believe either one, we don't have the full story. The world is as baffled as we are. Someone is making a lot of cash from all of this. We do not have to tolerate this just out of respect for the presidency.
90
If it takes a dictator to stop illegal immigration and pointless wars from continuing then a dictator is the best thing to happen to our country.
3
@Chris
That attitude is how a couple of bad guys came to power in Italy and Germany after WW I.
And that turned out well...
Would be lovely if Bolton were to "bolt." Let's see, there's always Sheldon Adelson that Trump could enlist. Or maybe just give the job to Sean Hannity and be done with it.
38
The Kurds do not need American troops.
They need Europeans and the useless EU (aka Germany) to engage.
Turkey is on the brink of recession. Without EU funds and trade it falls into 3rd world poverty.
Stop EU access and funding, suspend them from NATO. And throw in Cyprus withdrawal.
4
@Tom
Well,thenTurkey would become even more unreceptive to US.We need cooperation with Turkey for our defence.
3
You might consider the abject panic this is likely to cause here in Afghanistan -- Civilian and military alike -- Clearly nothing coming from the White House or their spokespeople can be trusted from day to day.
(Obviously, there's zero concern for the consequences.)
145
Once again, the Kurds are left out to dry after promises from the United States. How many times will they be burned by us before they refuse to assist us again?
92
@Andre
You know that beautiful song by our Nobel Prize winning troubadour?
“The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.”
He also asks the questions well. Quite poetically even.
All that wasted energy protesting his failure to do what he said he'd do (ex., withdraw from Syria). It's the same thing every time.
4
Now what happens to the Kurds? Has Trump agreed to allow
Erdogan to move into Syria toeradicate them?
26
I'm not sure that Trump and Bolton are on the same page. Turkey isn't even in the same book and the Kurds are left in the dark. The United States Middle East policy has been replaced by Trump's personal aggrandizement.
247
@James Klimaski
"I'm not sure that Trump and Bolton are on the same page."
Who didn't see this coming? Trump campaigned on a non-interventionist foreign policy, then gets into office and hires a super hawk in John Bolton because he has a "good relationship with him."
Take the analogy to other another area, say environmental regulation. What if, after campaigning on getting rid of many of the environmental regulations "standing in the way of our energy production", he hired the the president of the Sierra Club as the director of the Department of Energy. There might be a tad bit of confusion.
9
@James Klimaski
Reporting indicates the Kurds are making arrangements with the Assad regime and the Russians to fill the vacuum created by our putative withdrawal.
This whole business will no doubt end up being settled by the local parties (Assad, Iran, Iraq, Turkey) and the Russians as our influence dwindles.
3
If I were to a historian and had to explain this era to someone, I would use that last line. Except for “Middle East” it would just read [insert policy area here].
2
We broke it, with our criminal invasion of Iraq which destabilized much of the Middle East.
We cannot fix it, if indeed it is even fixable.
Elizabeth Warren, when asked about how she would handle Syria, said we needed to ask our military just why we are there, and if there is no real justification, we need to leave.
I agree with her.
Then leave each and every country in that part of the world, and let them understand we will punish anyone who terrorizes America or American interests, but America is done.
Hugh
14
@Hugh Massengill What if the military does have a real justification?
7
The invasion of Iraq sure didn’t help, but the Middle East has been unstable since....well, forever. You’re right that no outside country, even a superpower, can make a difference for long. The people of the region need to sort it out themselves
1
I remember a time when the US administration said 'there are no us troops on the Syrian land", no there is a US administration which wants to remove quickly the same troops which were not in Syria without preoccupation about the consequences.
Perhaps it is time to find a median way,
But it is sure that, as American and European, we are nothing to do in Syria, it is not our lands, culture, religious background.
We have to leave the Islamic area in peace. Who are we to explain the good and the bad to the Muslim world, who are we to claim that the shia is the devil and the hanbali sunni the good ?
the Islamic area in peace. Who are we to explain the good and the bad to the Muslim world, who are we to claim that the shia is the devil and the hanbali sunni the good ?
3
There are indirect ways of protecting the security of the United States of America Citizens. Withdrawing from Syria and using other protection methods such as cyber technology monitoring is the right choice by President DJT of the non- United States of America. Maybe I will be able to remove the "non" if the same mind set of President DJT in the Syrian case would be applied to the country that he leads. Then I may able to say and print what DJT means instead of using letters. Syria withdrawal a plus for President DJT of the now non-Untied States of America.
1
pretty clear trump jumped at chance to play down immediate withdraw when that was exactly his plan. there was no compromise, just advantage in pretending to agree to it as diversion
6
It’s interesting how almost everything Trump does that he says is in the interest of the United States is often also benefits, and in this case, directly benefits the Russians.
-withdrawal from Syria
-in conflict with NATO allies
-stoke political division in the United States
-stoke political divisions in Europe
-conflict with US neighbors
-conflict with trade partners like China
Etc etc
Everything seems designed to benefit the Russians, one way or another, but is ostensibly in the US interest.
280
@Frea
It does make one wonder, once again, just what the Russians have on Trump, that he should so often act in ways that benefit them, and may well damage the United States.
25
@Frea It's perhaps hard to believe, but that is only because the lying media tells the story that way. In reality it's Israel that runs the show. Please find alternative media.
There was no interference in the election from Russia.
US is not wanted in Syria, whereas Russia, an ally, is wanted there and has prevented the outbreak of WWIII during Obama's rule.
US stokes political division worldwide.
10
@Marta With all of the evidence in hand and yet here you are.
30
So basically Trump put boots on the ground in Syria, didn’t defeat ISIS, allowed Russia to bomb them, and is now giving Syria to Assad, ISIS, and Russia. While our allies have no buffer, and will now proceed to kill one another?
Wow.
159
This will certainly make America great again!
Not
17
@Jim
I expect that Trump will bring as much greatness to America as he did to Atlantic City.
2
Now it's time for America to take off the shirt of superpolice in middle east.
Every democracy shall be concerned of middle east matters , this is the matter of all of us .
And may be one day the sun of peace will shine in this beautiful part of the world !
Iraq
Syria
Israël
Palestine
Yemen
Go ahead peaceful people !
3
But, but, but Mr. Bolton just said troops would not immediately be leaving Syria! Surely Donald Trump would not go against Mr. Bolton, his now in the moment right hand guy, and order the troops to leave Syria, would he?
Yes, he would. Mattis and Kelly and McMaster and the rest are at home saying under their breath to Bolton “told ya so!”
113
@MIMA
Will Bolton follow Mattis and resign? I sort of doubt it as I suspect Bolton is too in love with his power, even though 45 will cut him off at his knees.
26
So, troops are withdrawing, so that Trump can declare victory. In the meantime, the USA is sending in other troops, so as to protect the Kurds and keep an eye on what El-Assad/Russia/Erdogan/Iran/Israel are doing there.
Window-dressing anyone?
5
I am totally confused. Are we in or out !!!!
7
Yes!
And just imagine if YOUR lives and the lives of your family and friends depended on Trump’s decisions. Be afraid.
MAGA indeed.
20
@Bob C
His critics don't know whether to protest our leaving or staying.
7
AACNY, No his critics would just like to get the feeling that he is not lying every minute of every day and that he ever listens to anyone who knows anything about the area in which he is making a policy decision. But, alas, his multiple mental illnesses and concomitant arrogance prevent that from happening.
6
Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?
Foreign policy by Trump and friends...never a dull moment. Unfortunately, never a very bright moment either.
70
@Bruce, Minnesota: Nice take on the Bobby Lamm (Chicago Transit Authority) tune from long ago: “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”
2
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,
Another CTA fan...
1
Good, the American troops are not needed. Syria can recover, and the region will be peaceful.
9
What a fully uninformed thing to say.
15
@NYC
Why, because we have not the same definition of "religion will be peaceful" ?
Religion will be peaceful means in the Muslim world that the state controls the public expression of the Islam, in Algeria the Friday speech of the imam must be recorded, in Marocco, the king is called the commander of the believers, in Egypt the Muslim brotherhood were pulled out form the power, in Saudi Arabia, the state control the the faith, etc.
@Steven The Middle East would definitely have been more peaceful without the US aggressive wars. 7 wars in 5 years were planned (see Wesley Clark on Youtube), as it happened, except that Russia stepped in to help Syria in 2015 (?). Thanks Heavens for that because otherwise Syria would have ended up like Iraq and Libya, Iran would have been bombed next and then .... Russia.
Each time, the country and its leader is demonized so that the people will go along with war (crimes). Remember Weapons of Mass destruction - there were none, unless you are getting your info from the lying media!
6
Finally! If congress wants to invade Syria, let them take a vote. It's their job.
11
@Neildsmith
Wars that are neither in self defense nor authorized by the UN Security Council are illegal. Syria is a sovereign country.
7
Congratulations to Mr. Trump for recognizing the need for the US to exit long term, no end game, costly, military engagements that were not needed, and, brought great harm to the Middle East and America.
It is long past time for the USA to focus on its own infrastructure, own educational challenges, instead of building roads, schools, concrete walls in the Middle East while killing the locally born population.
Just imagine. For the money spent in Iraq alone the USA could have built a new high school in every city in America.
A brand new high school in every city in America.
Instead of killing a bunch of people who never threatened us.
66
@Michael I would agree with you but it's fantastical to imagine that this administration will used the money saved for any of the domestic needs you outlined.
42
@Michael
Unfortunately, the infrastructure at play here is not a school....
21
@Michael
Not to mention the loss of innocent human lives. In Iraq alone 1.5 million!
9
Ah, I see the strategy - confuse everyone to the point that they can’t remember if the troops are there or not.
85
@S T
We have always/never been at war with Syria?
1
@Amanda
Currently. It would not remotely surprise me if they were turned around again. Completely baffle the enemy.
1
@S T
Apologies, my comment was intended to be sarcastically paraphrasing 1984's "We have never been at war with Eurasia" / "we have always been at war with Eurasia" idea and playing off your comment about Trump's strategy confusing everyone.
1
Lord, I just cannot keep up. One busy day, one long day, with a long commute and I miss the announcement that we are doing what we said we'd do before we announced that we were not doing what we said we'd do. After of course threatening to do what we were not going to do, but did.
I am reeling.
So don't color me at all surprised if by the end of the week we we remain in Syria. Or buy Syria. Or ignore Syria.
And if anybody actually has a really good concept of what good policy for Syria is, can you go on FOX and friends and have a breakdown over it, please?
445
@Cathy Have you considered the possibility that this is all intentional misdirection by the administration? I'm no Trump supporter, but he did explicitly say many times in the past that he didn't like the way our government telegraphed military operations to the world. Maybe he's trying to keep the public (and maybe even the Pentagon) guessing at what he will do. If so, it's working.
4
@Kal Al - "Have you considered the possibility that this is all intentional misdirection by the administration?"
The only misdirection going on is redirecting our attention away from the Mueller investigation.
39
@Cathy It was so much better before! For instance, when they attacked Afganistan. Wait a minute? Why did they attack Afganistan? We still do not know.
With Iraq, at least there is some argument why. But why Afganistan?
It was also very well planned and very meaningful, when they destroyed Libia. Why they did it? We have no idea.
Indeed, in those times the government was very logical.
3
We have an administration that has zero idea what their doing! I long for Bush/Cheney and I thought they were horrific!
28
I wonder what Congressional Republicans would say if President Obama made this move. Instead, there is silence.
322
@Dillon
Democrats were in favor of a speedy withdrawal when Obama was in office. They couldn't get our troops out of there fast enough. Of course, an election was coming, and democrats knew their voters didn't want us there.
6
The Republicans will do - or in this case, not do - anything for a buck (tax cuts).
1