« We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency. »
With ISIS on the ropes, is it time for a knockout blow — or to blow the Syrian pop stand? According to the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump has chosen the latter. Under pressure from Turkey, the US has notified its partners in the region that it will commence a full withdrawal from Syria:
In an abrupt reversal, the U. S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a move that throws the American strategy in the Middle East into turmoil.
U. S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State, the people said.
“The Pentagon has an order to get to move troops out of Syria as quickly as possible, “ a U. S. official said.
The move follows a call last week between President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to launch an assault on America’s Kurdish partners in Syria.
A US pullout makes that threat more likely than less likely, one would imagine. Erdogan has repeatedly threatened Kurdish forces in northern Syria, calling them terrorists and demanding that the US withdraw support for them. The YDF in particular, which was instrumental in pushing ISIS out of Raqqa, has come under threat. Without American forces on the ground, the path would be open for Erdogan to attack their positions in force, which might undermine any further effort to demolish the vestiges of ISIS.
Nevertheless, Trump himself declared victory and tacitly confirmed the report:
We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19,2018
CNN gives an accounting of the withdrawal’s scope, and notes that the decision does not include Iraq:
Even though the US will continue to maintain troops in Iraq with the capability of launching strikes into Syria, a US withdrawal of ground forces would fulfill a major goal of Syria, Iran and Russia and risks diminishing US influence in the region.
