Is President Trump going to finally fulfill his long-stated pledge to bring the troops home from Syria? The reporting consensus is that he actually tried to during his first administration, but it received massive pushback from US defense and intelligence officials at the time, amid an outcry from the hawkish deep state Washington blob. But is it for real this time? NBC reports the following on Wednesday amid a new realignment of Mideast priorities in the wake of Bashar al-Assad's December 8 ouster, and now that the Islamist faction HTS is ruling from Damascus...
"The Defense Department is developing plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, two U.S. defense officials told NBC News on Tuesday." The NBC report adds, "President Donald Trump and officials close to him recently expressed interest in pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, the officials said, leading Pentagon officials to begin drawing up plans for a full withdrawal in 30, 60 or 90 days."
For years the Pentagon claimed that just 1,000 US troops were occupying the oil and gas region of Syria's northeast region, in support of Syrian Kurdish groups. Special forces have long been advising and assisting the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). More recently, the Pentagon has confirmed at least 2,000 are actually there. Likely there are many more contractors and intelligence operatives as well.
"Trump’s new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, spent Friday at the headquarters of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, meeting with senior U.S. military leaders and getting briefings on the Middle East, according to U.S. defense officials," NBC continues.
A Syria pullout has been a long time in coming. But the Pentagon has repeatedly touted the troop presence as part of a key 'anti-ISIS' mission - though it's been clear to all that it was really about 'thwarting Iran' while keeping pressure on Damascus and the prior Assad government.
Regional reports have documented that Syrian oil was ferried across the border into Iraq, after during Trump's first presidency he declared that American forces were "securing the oil". Syria produced enough oil and gas to supply its own domestic needs, and does never had enough to be an oil exporting power.
Thus from the start the occupation of the major oil fields was more about crippling the Syrian economy alongside Washington sanctions, a resource grab which has hit the Syrian population hard. Even now, Damascus has about an hour of electricity per day, and many households are making due with the help of solar panels.
NATO member Turkey has long railed against the Pentagon presence in northern Syria, and considers the SDF but a 'terrorist' extension of the outlawed PKK.
A grand deal could be in the works, given Turkey is reportedly negotiating the set up two Turkish army bases inside Syria, also as Syria's new self-declared president Ahmed al-Sharaa (his AQ name is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani).
At the tail end of the Biden administration, the Pentagon suddenly 'learned' of its own bigger force posture in Syria...
All the while US troops have been sitting ducks for attacks by Iran-backed militias, attacks which have run in the hundreds over the past half-decade, mainly through drone and mortar launches.
Will Trump finally "bring our boys home" - as has been long promised? There was no Congressional authorization for them to be there in the first place, and the American public is weary of foreign adventurism and getting bogged down in quagmires which do little or nothing to serve real US interests.