The ISIS Caliphate Is Destroyed, but Washington Won’t Accept Victory
. By Daniel DePetris
April 04, 2019
When President Trump tweeted in December 2018 that all 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria would come home shortly, the foreign policy establishment went into overdrive to stop a full withdrawal from taking place. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition Brett McGurk resigned in protest, and prestigious editorial pages opined as if the entire universe would fall apart should a single U.S. soldier leave Syria.
Now, the Trump administration is changing tack. The New York Times reports that once half those 2,000 U.S. forces are withdrawn, the White House will pause the drawdown and reassess the situation every six months. Even if additional withdrawal rounds proceed, 400 Americans will remain on Syrian soil indefinitely, performing operations as varied as nation-building in areas cleared from ISIS occupation to managing a purported safe-zone in the northeast—both of which are detached from the original counterterrorism mission.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/04/04/the_isis_caliphate_is_destroyed_but_washington_wont_accept_victory_114305.html
