Decision on pullout follows Trump’s talk with Erdogan. All State Department personnel to evacuate in next 24 hours. Netanyahu informed by Trump two days ago, says Israel will fend off repercussions
Reuters, Haaretz and Noa Landau
The White House said on Wednesday that the United States has started sending troops back from Syria but that the move does not signify the end of the campaign or a halt to the work of the global coalition in the war-torn country.
The U.S. is considering a total withdrawal of forces, U.S. officials told Reuters.
All U.S. State Department personnel are being evacuated from Syria within 24 hours, a U.S. official told Reuters.
>> GOP senators: U.S. withdrawal from Syria a win for ISIS, Iran and Russia
The decision came after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Friday. “Everything that has followed is implementing the agreement that was made in that call,” the official said.
Such a decision upends assumptions about a longer-term U.S. military presence in Syria, which U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other senior U.S. officials had advocated to help ensure Islamic State cannot reemerge.
The Pentagon also said it had started the process of returning U.S. troops from Syria. “The Coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement, using an acronym for Islamic State.
“We have started the process of returning U.S. troops home from Syria as we transition to the next phase of the campaign,” she said.
“For force protection and operational security reasons we will not provide further details. We will continue working with our partners and allies to defeat ISIS wherever it operates.”
Still, Trump has previously expressed a strong desire to bring troops home from Syria when possible. On Wednesday, Trump appeared to declare victory against the group and made clear he saw no further grounds for remaining in Syria.
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” he tweeted.
Israel wary of repercussions
Israel was aware of Trump’s intentions, and has been trying to postpone the decision over the last year. However, it was the timing of the move which caught the political echelon off-guard and came at a moment when Israel is facing the repercussions of the September downing a Russian spy plane in Syria.
Since the incident, Netanyahu has yet to be invited to Moscow, and Israel was hoping this would happen before the U.S. withdrawal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump and with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The U.S. administration has told me that it was the president’s intention to
pull out their troops from Syria. They clarified that they have other ways to wield their influence in that arena,” the premier stated.
Netanyahu added that Israel will closely follow the time table of the American troops’ withdrawl and what repercussions this move will have on Jerusalem. “In any case we will make sure to ensure the safety of Israel and protect ourselves from this arena.”
Israel’s envoy at the UN, Danny Danon, voiced concern over the American move later Wednesday. Speaking at a UN Security Council session on Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels, the Israeli ambassador said that while Israel respected its ally’s decision it still had its own concerns about the situation in Syria.
The timing of the troop withdrawal was not immediately clear and U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity did not disclose details about the deliberations. But one official told Reuters that partners and allies had been consulted.
Read more: Islamic State Kills 700 Prisoners in East Syria, War Monitor Finds
Two U.S. officials said a decision to withdraw had already been reached but that could not be immediately confirmed. It was unclear how soon a decision detailing any withdrawal plans might be announced.
The Pentagon declined to comment to Reuters, saying only that it continued to work with partners in the region.
The United States still has about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of them special operations forces working closely with an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
The partnership with the SDF over the past several years has led to the defeat of Islamic State in Syria but outraged NATO ally Turkey, which views Kurdish YPG forces in the alliance as an extension of a militant group fighting inside Turkey.
The deliberations on U.S. troops come as Ankara threatens a new offensive in Syria. To date, U.S. forces in Syria have been seen as a stabilizing factor in the country and have somewhat restrained Turkey’s actions against the SDF.
A complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria would still leave a sizeable U.S. military presence in the region, including about 5,200 troops across the border in Iraq.
Much of the U.S. campaign in Syria has been waged by warplanes flying out of Qatar and other locations in the Middle East.
Still, Mattis and U.S. State Department officials have long fretted about leaving Syria before a peace agreement can be reached to end that country’s brutal civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced around half of Syria’s pre-war population of about 22 million.
In April, Mattis said: “We do not want to simply pull out before the diplomats have won the peace. You win the fight — and then you win the peace.”
Islamic State is also widely expected to revert to guerilla tactics once it no longer holds territory.
A U.S. withdrawal could open Trump up to criticism if Islamic State reemerged.
Trump has previously lambasted his predecessor, Barack Obama, for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq that preceded an unraveling of the Iraqi armed forces. Iraqi forces collapsed in the face of Islamic State’s advance into the country in 2014.
Last one percent
Islamic State declared its so-called “caliphate” in 2014 after seizing large swathes of Syria and Iraq. The hardline Islamist group established its de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa, using it as a base to plot attacks in Europe.
According to U.S. estimates, the group oversaw about 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) of territory, with about 8 million people under Islamic State control. It had estimated revenues of nearly one billion dollars a year.
Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, said last week that the group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held in its self-styled “caliphate.” The group has no remaining territory in Iraq.
Hajin, the group’s last major stronghold in Syria, is close to being seized by U.S.-backed SDF forces.
After losing Hajin, Islamic State will control a diminishing strip of territory along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in the area where U.S.-backed operations are focused. The militants also control some desert terrain west of the river in territory otherwise controlled by the Damascus government and its allies.
But U.S. officials have warned that taking back the group’s territory would not be the same as defeating it.
“Even as the end of the physical caliphate is clearly now coming into sight, the end of ISIS will be a much more long-term initiative,” McGurk told a State Department briefing on Dec. 11.
U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned earlier in December that the United States had trained only about 20 percent of Syrian forces required to stabilize areas captured from Islamic State.
@ Edgar G.:
“…even a genius (undiscovered it’s true) can make a stupid error…”
Which undiscovered genius are you talking about? There are so many of us here.
@ Michael S:
Sorry……. Michael you’re quite right to correct me. Of course I made an error My mind was on Afghanistan and I suppose it being an “istan” caused my mistyping. I didn’t connect Kurds with Kurdistan, which shows than even a genius (undiscovered it’s true) can make a stupid error.
I was looking at a similar, but different map of that whole area a few months ago. Once is O.K. but if I make any more bloopers, I’ll begin to get seriously worried.
@ Edgar G.:
Adam you want to have me denying what makes me tick. Why do I keep getting things so right?
Another point in what you say is the people of this site are not only the commenters.
As you admit you know very little about this history and I know an awful lot and I argue from that standpoint.
Do I ever come along and tell Jews anything about their religion Judaism No I do not!
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar. Here is Kurdistan:
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b3e3f6ec6ee243097b5f92c0d6db8926-c
Here are the areas of control in Syria and Iraq:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Syrian%2C_Iraqi%2C_and_Lebanese_insurgencies.png/628px-Syrian%2C_Iraqi%2C_and_Lebanese_insurgencies.png
US troops are in the yellow-green area in the southeast and the gold area in the north (embedded with Kurdish fighters). Russian troops are in the pink area in the west. Turkish troops are in the green areas in northwest Syria and NE Iraq. The Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq is shown in olive.
The Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria are under the Marxist YPG, allied with PKK insurgents in Turkey. The Kurdish-controlled region in Syria consists of Muslim clans, split largely between two families. They have alternately been under Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi influence.
It is actually ironic everyone keeps talking about 2000 US Troops. In reality there were many more on the ground probably 2 to 3 times. Trump did something smart initially 2000 were authorized but more were needed so he authorized more soldiers but did not allow the amount to be released.
Also this force supplemented by 30 to 40,000 Kurds who serve as infantry. The US special ops and trainers have a significant influence because they laser target close cover air operations when the need arises. So even if the air units stay in nearby countries they will not be as effective.
So the Kurds will no longer likely have USA air-cover plus the accurate fire artillery the US military had on the ground. So when commentators and reporters are claiming that the small number of US troops can be replaced by others this is not likely to be done..
The USA are also supplemented by about 1000 French Troops but without the USA allies on the ground the French will also be less effective and more vulnerable. Marcron says he is leaving them there because ISIS is not defeated.
If he is not pulling them out, he better significantly increase the force strength in numbers and equipment or they will become targets.
@ Michael S:
Since you thought you were answering to me..then I’ll oblige, and keep in the picture. What has Kurdistan got to do with this particular subject of resupplying northern Syra…?? I’m not good at geography…
And even if the US had a huge war machine built up then, it would be dwarfed in capacity, speed and capability, by what they have today….. and PLEASE admit, that yes it cost them, and would cost the US today, but THAT’S what happens when operating anything ……literally anything. And it would be a minor budget detail, and would not necessarily need to be of long duration.
As for overflight permssion…. I would like to see anyone shoot at a US plane carrying supplies. They wouldibe escorted by fighters and fighter-bombers, along with close ground surveillance and no-one would dare. That’s the beauty of the miserly 2000 US servicemen presently there, soon to be removed. I wrote when they were bruited to go there, that this would be enough to keep away the big-hitters, representing, as they were,the mightiest, most powerful nation in history. It reminded me immediately of Gaius Pompillius; the Roman envoy who drew the line in the sand with his staff for Antiochus, when he was ready to invade Egypt, the Roman “breadbasket”… Those interested in history will know what and whom I mean. Only Felix, earlier on this page got it.
@ Felix Quigley: I don’t think that a new party in Israel should bt Trotskyist, since the Trotskyist movement in Israel and throughout the countries where it exists at present, except for yourself, is anti-Israel and pro “Palestinian.” On the other hand, Israel definitely does need a new political party. It should be dedicated to the peaceful overthrow of the unelected, self-pointed lawyers and policemen who currently run the country, and the institution of a government elected by, and accountable to, the Israeli people.
With respect to the United States, I am not sure whether or not a new political party would be useful. My gut feeling is that working within the two existing parties would be more useful . The “two party” system seems to entrenched in the United States for a third party to win elections and acquire power. On the other hand, both of the two major parties have mechanisms that may allow people committed to more rational policies, including policies helpful to the American working class and Israel, to win leadership roles in both parties.
@ adamdalgliesh:
Hi, Adam
I hope you don’t mind my butting in on you and Bear here. Turkey has indeed purged not only his military, but his police, the press, the whole works. He has become a total dictator, having erased many of the secularist reforms under Attaturk.
Turkey makes no bones of the fact that it plans to invade the Kurdish-held parts of Syria. The latest I have read, the Kurdish forces there are suggesting that they will withdraw from the southern part of their holdings, releasing over 3000 ISIS prisoners, in order to better protect the Kurdish-majority north from the expected Turkish assault. Turkey has been planning and threatening this move for years. Trump’s decision to send troops there, early last year, gave the Kurds time to prepare for the Turks, as well as arming them and helping them clear the field of hostile ISIS forces. It was never intended to be a permanent US occupation.
As far as Turkey being an ally/ frenemy, we have a deeply-entrenched relationship with them, including co-production of the F-35 fighter. Turkey’s joining the SCO alliance with Russia and China has worked against this relationship, as well as their buying advanced air defense systems from the Russians and Turkey’s helping Iran circumvent US sanctions. I would guess that all of the above presented points of friction between Trump and his advisors; and Congress has added to the conflict with various acts.
Meanwhile, back in Iraqi Kurdistan, there is a contest on between the Iranians and Turks for influence in the Kurdish Regional Government (whose leader, I will note, HATES the Kurdish regional government in Syria). The troubles in that part of the world are not likely to end any time soon, no matter what President Trump does.
@ Felix Quigley: Klein’s article in Brietbart is indeed excellent. He is one of the best investigative reporters in the U.S. and Israel.
I apologize for discussing Trotsky once more. I know it upsets you when he is criticized. My problem is that I have longed shared your fascination with the Russian Revolution, including Trotsky’s role in it, for years even before I began commenting on this site. Your comments about Trotsky here further piqued my interest, and so I took out about eight biographies of Trotsky from the local library system where I live in upstate New York, and read through them. Some of them were sympathetic to Trotsky, other hostile to him, and others tried to strike a balance. I also read an interesting article about Trotsky in Mosaic magazine. My take on Trotsky’s work obviously differs from yours. But I will do my best to “hold my fire” on this matter in the future, as you request.
@ Bear Klein: I agree. I hope you are wrong about the Turkish military having been purged of all opponants of Erdogan. But you are probably right. The Fall of Turkey to the Islamists and Turkish imperialists (Erdogan is both), and the apparent stregthening of the U.S. alliance with Turkey in spite of this, is a profoundly tragic development.
@ Bear Klein:
Bear, are you aware that Israel is actually driving the US AWAY from helping it, as it cozies up to Russia and China? A few years back, it leased its port of Haifa to the Chinese, on a 25-year lease. US defense planners, as a consequence, are having to reconsider naval exercises they operate out of the port on behalf of Israel. The party who brokered the lease was Israel Katz. You might want to ask him what was going through his head.
@ Felix Quigley:
Felix, you seem to be shooting from the him. Slow down! This is not the OK corral!
You said, “Is this because of your bias against China the communist state? These Uighurs are very similar to the “Palestinians” and are the spearhead of Jihad.”
Are you aware, that most of my family live in China? I know that they are a communist state, but this does not bias me against them: I consider them, every day, with the utmost circumspection.
Regardless of what sort of people you believe the Uyghurs are, it would be flat-out stupid for the US to sent troops to Xinjiang — either to fight them or to help them. Just look at a globe or an atlas, preferably one that shows Xinjiang as completely landlocked and surrounded by some of the highest mountains in the world. It would take far more than prejudice, to convince a country other than Russia or China (or 13th Century Mongolia) to intervene there.
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar.
I accidentally gave a response to Felix, intending it for you.
@ Felix Quigley:
Hi, Felix. I thought I was responding to Edgar, but don’t have editing time left to check…
I appreciate your investigating this matter. Three items need to be considered, when comparing the 1949 Berlin Airlift to the situation in Syria:
1. In 1949, we had an incredible airlift capacity, built up with a general mobilization for the greatest war in history. We could certainly match that capacity today, but it would cost us.
2. In Germany in 1949, the US had overflight rights over East Germany. We have no such rights in Syria, but instead are operating on an ad hoc basis through agreements with the Russians and Syrians.
3. Kurdistan is not Germany. Germany was, and still is, one of the most economically productive countries on earth. Syria is not.
@ Felix Quigley:
I sincerely believe Felix, that people on THIS site have very little interest in Trotsky, and he seems an almost forgotten political figure of the distant past, ending up running for his life, wth the inevitable ending. If he’s had genuine supporters, they would have been with him …..at least he would have been with them, and his murder could not have been achieved.
The more you mention him -and you obviously know an enormous amount about him as if he had been a study taking up many years- …but as I say, the more yoo mention him here, the more people turn off. This is my strong impression..
As far as needing a Party to achieve anything, I believe you are absolutely correct, but nobody can see why it HAS TO BE a Trotskyist Party……….
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/mattis-and-israel-not-a-love-story/2018/12/21/
Just like the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai in 1956 with Eisenhower’s guarantees of security for Israel proved worthless and lead to the 1967 War
@ Bear Klein:
Thank you for the info as depicted.
@ Felix Quigley:
I agree, and that was noticeable already last year. Mattis had not been satisfactory to the Commander-in-Chief, and I believe that it was already noted in reports, and there was the usual speculation that he would be fired- although Trump said no. So it died down until now .
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/20/james-comey-admits-he-didnt-tell-trump-that-democrats-financed-dossier/
This is a great story from a very good reporter Aaron Klein who I like to read. Comey is under pressure now and with Comey all of those involved in the “Dirty Dossier” against Trump, which means all of the Media with the exception of the now shaky Fox.
But to me there is absent a political party which can lead the fight.
I do think from my reading that this has to be a Trotskyist Party. I am working to develop a website so please help me to do that. Plenty know my work. Please try to work through all those lies against people like Trotsky. At least hold your fire until you have done serious reading.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Michael-Oren-on-Mattis-resignation-Israel-will-fend-for-itself-575005
@ Felix Quigley:
@ Bear Klein:
Bear Klein do what you want I do not really care. But to others you may say your opinion of the discussion election night of DT with Michael Savage.
@ Edgar G.:
It is all over the place in reporting. I did a quick google search and one of many that came up is from CNN/ Mathis is quoting as writing this in his resignation letter.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/politics/donald-trump-jim-mattis-resignation/index.html
Also find the whole copy of the letter posted at
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/20/james-mattis-read-resignation-letter-president-trump/2381698002/
@ Michael S:
You write
“Others are the Uighurs of China, the Chechens of Russia, the Abkhazis of Georgia, the Armenians of Karabakh, the Russians in eastern Ukraine, the Tuareg in Mali, the Kachins and Rohyngians in Myanmar… there is no end of places where great powers like the US could intervene; but the US has prudently stayed out of those conflicts.”
Is this because of your bias against China the communist state? These Uighurs are very similar to the “Palestinians” and are the spearhead of Jihad.
How can someone on Israpundit take such a position?
@ Bear Klein:
I cannot answer you in full here but your response is full of bias and is slanted. Perhaps Trump simply thinks more deeply than Mattis. There is a war on between these views and positions in America and IN the White House too. You are allowing your own bias to form opinions.
@ Edgar G.:
Edgar the BBC World News have already been all over this story so Bear Klein is right. The BBC are promoting it in sense that “everybody is leaving Trump” total negativity because they hate Trump so much. If you however do the opposite of the BBC you are always right. Actually the split with Mattis to me is very positive.
@ Bear Klein:
I’ve read several reports about Mattis resigning etc. Not one of them mentioned anything about “respecting allies and treating them better”….where did you get this report…? t seems you get more detailed info..
@ Michael S:
Mchael.. don’t think it would be any problem for the US to supply troops there. This is 2018..still…..remember during the Cold War a few years after WW2 they were eepng West Berlin suppiled with a higher amount of calories per day than were being issued in the UK….. still closely rationed at that time. There were about 2.5 mill people plud over 100,000 US Troops.
At least…that’s what the calculations that came out later reported.
US defense chief Mattis quits as Trump announces Syria withdrawal. Trump did not listen to him in the Middle East or elsewhere and he said in his resignation that Trump would be better served with someone who has similar views.
He said he believed in respecting allies and treating them better.
@ Felix Quigley:
“Michael S:
Are you saying that the alliance with the Kurds is a bad thing for America? I do not understand you. Can you clarify this huge issue please?”
It is a huge issue, Felix, and you are right in a way. I did not advise the president not to support the Kurds; but I did note that the Kurds were in a part of Syria where it would be difficult to resupply our forces; and reminded him of the fiasco in Vietnam. There were no easy calls in early 2017.
When the president opted to support the Kurds, I applauded him for sticking with a faithful ally, while at the same time reminding him that the US would eventually have to pull out. I also wrote that I was pleased with President Trump for sticking to his campaign promise to defeat ISIS, and make that a priority. If you remember, former Army Lt. Gen. McMaster was National Security Advisor then, and he often was at cross-purposes with the president. He was hawkish on sending troops into Syria, but I wondered how he planned to resupply them when Iraq was becoming an Iranian proxy. Was he going to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and secure a US military corridor in Iraq? He apparently was not; there was no rabbit; and the president eventually took McMaster’s hat away.
The most important take on all this does not concern the Kurds; it concerns President Trump, who has once again demostrated that he is a man of his word. That is a great strength to the US and its allies.
The Kurds are one of many peoples fighting for independence. Others are the Uighurs of China, the Chechens of Russia, the Abkhazis of Georgia, the Armenians of Karabakh, the Russians in eastern Ukraine, the Tuareg in Mali, the Kachins and Rohyngians in Myanmar… there is no end of places where great powers like the US could intervene; but the US has prudently stayed out of those conflicts.
As for the Kurds, they do not have a good track record of unity or loyalty. The Syrian Kurds, and their PKK allies in Turkey, have been at times allied with the Russians and Assad Syrians; the Iraqi Kurds have traded alliances with Iran, Turkey and Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq. If our experience in Afghanistan is any guide in these matters, a rebel group might enthusiastically welcome US troops, only to turn on them down the road.
I expect the Turks to ultimately occupy all of Kurdistan, and move on from there to confront Israel. I have been saying this for decades. I’m certainly not a cheerleader for Recep Tayyip “Gog” Erdogan; I just see what seems to be reality.
@ Felix Quigley:
Sorry I forget for a second and communicated with you like you were actually sane. Please forgive me I will not make that mistake again!
@ Bear Klein:
TRUMP IS BLOODY WELL RIGHT
Once again nearly all on Israpundit are unable to deal with reality. All are now in a massive panic because all Israeli leaders from its founding have been slaves to the US Government and have given up on the independence of the Jewish Homeland state, the oldest nation in the world. How sickening now for these bankrupts. this actually ties in with the story that Alan wrote about how the Israeli Govt built a road, covered it then in CLAY!!!! and planted trees for the Jihadis!!!! If this does not waken Israpundit up nothing will.
Trump is right he is absolutely right. The position of the Netanyahu clique is so far removed from the thinking of Trump as he talked MOST frankly to Michael Savage on that election night.
He said to savage, to the huge pride of Savage, I will go immediately to Syria and organize the joint with Assad and Putin.
All you commie haters could not stomach a deal with Putin because it was RUSSIA.
Commie hating is your essence and so you could not read Trump. Trump is a doer not an ideological guy at all.
Now Trump has called your bluff.
He is numero uno an American nationalist.
He is what Netanyahu will never be…disgustiong behaviour building a road then claying it!!!
The time lost by this government.
They will try to bluff it out. the Bear Kleins and the Michaels always have an answer.
These sneaks who have for years been trying to bring down Assad even though Assad stood between the Christians and Yazedis getting their throats cut. Assad and the Kurds are on the same side. Trump was right from that election night.
This is going to stop the Israelis telling their lies about the poison gas and the “White Hats”. And their bombing into Syria while they should have been flattening Hezbollah in Lebanon.
This must cause a revolution eventually in Israel and Israpundit better start having some backbone for once or there will benobody to read it!!!
@ Ted Belman:
I have sources who also say this but they are not entirely convincing to me. Yes the USA is going to continue sanctions on Iran and will diplomatically back up Israeli military actions, which will now be needed post haste!!
. Will this stop a land corridor by Iran all the way into Lebanon?????
Will this stop Turks from attacking Kurds in Syria NO!!
Will the Russians not have more leverage and power. Yes!!
The USA will still have some middle east military assets for now! Will they for the long term??
Trump appears to shifting budgets from the middle-east to the “Wall” as he is going to order the Defense Department to build the wall out of their budget since he does not appear to be able get approved funding for the Wall for Congress and Mexico has not volunteered to pay for it! This is his signature issue and what he got the hard core original Trump Supporters excited with.
Now he hopes to get a wall, sell some Patriot Missiles. A few Kurds die what the hell the USA is not the policeman of the middle east quote Trump. That is his view and Bolton and Pompeo know Trump makes the decisions and they just recommend!
@ Felix Quigley:
Apart from his total lies against me this is the centre of what Ross (+yamit82 + a lot of others includimg those who were silent) as this veiled attack on me was made the key issue in the above is when they say
” I suspect that Israel is sometimes aiding indirectly the jihadis and that they have been offered a deal by the GCC.
What deal is offered Israel by Iran, Syria, hezbullah?”
Aiding the Jihadis is certainly aiding ISIS that is what he is saying. And Ross and they went along with this. One Ross distorts what I called for Second Ross chooses ISIS.
How much principle is in this?
That may indeed have been the position of Netanyahu and a very big slice of the Israeli leadership in this present time.
We must go back into this and see what has happened.
I think this is curtains for Israel under this type of leadership. I have been taught in my life to fight politically for principle no matter how hard it is to do.
You note that Ross tore the situation then out of its immediate context. Assad had just seen what happened to Gadhafi after he had a working deal with Bush and Blair. And before that Saddam. Before that Mubarak, also Gaghbo and Ben Ali. America lay behind everything as far as these ISIS killer types was concerned.
The position of Ross and Yamit I said then was totally disastrous. Letting your enemies fight each other is disastrous. They may not. They may fight and emerge stronger.
But I was alone and they lay into me with not a word in my defence.
I did predict very clearly that these things would come back to haunt Israel and through this Israeli leadership the Jewish people once again. That sadly is NOW!
I keep repeating the correct position of Trump on the night of the election when he talked to Michael Savage on his show. Trump was for traveling to Syria and meeting with Trump and of course Assad too. He was right. But Trump is a good man but a kind of activist, and he soon got totally bogged down by these Fascists RINOs and Dems with Left Fascists in tow which rule the roost in America.
Plus just look at these positions taken up by people on Israpundit.
I feel bitter but I fear Jews will pay dearly.
@ Bear Klein:
I have now confirmed it to my satisfaction (don’t ask me how). America remains fully committed to stopping Iran and working with its allies with or without her troops there to get the job done.
@ Ted Belman:
Who would these others be in theory (no one else F-22s & F-35s plus large amounts of special forces)? All reports are to the contrary Ted. Trump just tweeted (I get his tweets) that he is leaving Syria as this was his position for years.
I agree with everyone that Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria is a huge mistake.. How I differ is that I find it difficult to believe that he was so callous and that he didn’t make arrangements to get others to fill the gaps.
We’ll soon know if this is the final word.
Piecing various reports together it appears the USA has agreed to sell Turkey Patriot Missiles (perhaps in lieu of S-400).
Trump agreed to move USA troops out of Syria and clear the way for the Turks to attack Kurds in Northern Syria.
A complete betrayal of Kurds done a a business scale weapons deal. What is next he will release the F-35s to Turkey?
Trump frankly in his teeter tottering stratagem can no longer be trusted as an ally by anyone. I am highly disappointed. I actually thought he had learned about the middle-east and what the USA’s role in it needs to be since he has been POTUS. He just tweeted that this has been what he has been campaigning on for years, which is to get the USA out of the middle-east.
He has now abandoned the middle-east to the Russians, Turks and Iranians. The Israelis will be fighting the battle on their own without any true allies.
@ Felix Quigley:
Bolton & Pompeo wanted to keep USA troops in Syria both to support Kurds and to counter Iranians from building land bridge from Iran to Lebanon in which to move weapons. They believed this is was in the strategic interest in the USA.
https://www.debka.com/the-idf-must-cut-short-tunnel-operation-get-set-for-repercussions-from-trumps-stunning-syria-withdrawal/
Listen to this for a piece of confusion from a guy called Bernard Ross. Let em count the lies and evasions
you advise the Jews to be a tool to those who have sworn to liquidate the Jews in order to further your ideology. The opposing side(GCC/Nato) which cynically employs jihadis and maybe even false flag chemical attacks(I don’t know who is lying) is hardly better. While they kill each other it is best that Israel remains outside their battle and enters only on their own interests. I suspect that Israel is sometimes aiding indirectly the jihadis and that they have been offered a deal by the GCC.
What deal is offered Israel by Iran, Syria, hezbullah?
The fly in the ointment is Russia but we cannot be sure how they will express their interests in the final outcome. They wish to have calm in the caucusus and a lucrative position in any global energy outcome plus a strengthened military strategic position in the ME. I believe they will seek to further their own national interests as opposed to any ideology.
https://www.israpundit.org/liberal-hypocrisy-in-iraq-and-syria/comment-page-1/
I had advanced a theory that it was necessary for Israel, America (big problem because Obama was a Jihadist in essence to unite with Syria Assad on the basis of excluding Iran.
Assad was looked on as a saviour against ISIS by the Christians, Alawites and Yazedis.
I said unite with Assad onthat basis (plus he would not need Iran), Russia because Russia also had a Jihad problem in Russia, Israel and destroy ISIS. There was never the same hatred of Assad to the Kurds than Turkey had.
This would create a united country of Syria with much friendship for the Kurds to keep the unity of Syria on that basis.
But Ross had other ideas. He thought he knew what I was thinking better than I wrote. Writing was not good enough
“you advise the Jews to be a tool to those who have sworn to liquidate the Jews in order to further your ideology”
@ Michael S:
Are you saying that the alliance with the Kurds is a bad thing for America? I do not understand you. Can you clarify this huge issue please?
@ Bear Klein:
“Bad move by Trump. He did NOT listen to Bolton or Pompeo.”
What do you mean precisely? Waht was their line and how do they differ from Ron Paul who supports Trump on this?
@
adamdalgliesh:
Turkish military has been purged of those that hate Erodgan and is left with loyalists. They are the enemy. Trump is abandoning allies Kurds and Israelis to the benefit of the Turks, Iranians and Russians. This is a horrible disgusting move!
Executive Council of KNK – Johnathan Spyer reported this!
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, backed the long-term presence of U.S. troops in Syria to balance against Iran this fall.
“We’re not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias,” Bolton said in September.
Trump now backtracked on this! Turkey is run by an Islamist.
Trump is cow towing to him.
America is in a big mess. Trump can do little because he is being attacked by Fascism, which is the emerging Fascist state within the state centred on Dems and RINOs. The Trump Presidency is a disaster but it really is not HIS fault. Things are moving towards Fascism in America. Treatment of Flynn sums it up. Fascism is coming in America not through Trump but through these Dems RINOs and Dem Fascist Lefts as well as CIA and FBI
Into this mix is also the bankruptcy of Israel and its leaders.
They did exactly the wrong thing. The tactic was to have an alliance with Russia and Assad and with America in order to defeat ISIS/Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda (different names same thing)
Assad had saw the fate of Saddam and Gadhafi and was desperate.
Condition was that Iran not to have foot on Syrian soil, or Turkey
Seems so obvious to me.
Edgar was in agreement back then so it was NOT nonsensical.
But I was ridiculed in a most vicious way on Israpundit a very long time ago by Yamit, a person called Bernard Ross and a woman from Texas. And that has continued.
@ Bear Klein:
In 2017, before President Trump decided to back the Syrian Kurds with US troops, I wrote him to say that if he did decide on that option, then sooner or later he would have to abandon them. The time to do so has come, and I am not surprized. Our President is saving defense dollars and American lives, two things he is expected to do as president.
Turkey will ultimately attack the Kurds and advance in Syria. After that, I expect them to attack Israel and be defeated (Ezek. 38-39).
adamdalgliesh Said:
I agree providing that there is nothing positive to the announcement.
I think there is more to this story than is being reported. Although one of the US goals was to eradicate ISIS, the other more current goal is to get Iran out of Syria.. No mention was made of this.
This announcement was made immediately on the heels of the US call to Erdogan. I believe that there will be some method to Trump’s madness which will become apparently in the next few days.
I d not believe that this is a unilateral move by the US. It will transpire that other countries like Turkey have committed to do something different also.
A very troubling decision. What I find most troubling is the report that it was taken as a result of a phone conversation with Erdogan. The U.S. decision to strengthen its aliance with Turkey at the expense of the Kurds and the Saudis is a big mistake. Also troubling is the report that U.S. planes are using the U.S. base in Qatar to bomb ISIS. This strengthens Qatar, an ally of Iran, Hizbollah, and Hamas.
A better strategy would be to withdraw U.S. forces from Turkey and Qatar, move them to Kurdish territory in Iraq, strengthen U.S. carrier fleets in the Meditaranian, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, impose economic sanctions of Turkey and Qatar, and use military force against the Erdogan regime if it attacks the Kurds. Also, conspire with the Turkish military, which hates the Erdogan dictatorship, to effect regime change in Turkey and restore a secular government.
Bad move by Trump. He did NOT listen to Bolton or Pompeo. He left Kurds and Israel in the lurch and will embolden Russia, Turkey, Iran & the Hezis would will get weapons from Iran via the ground unless Israel can stop this. Without being on the ground it will be tough!