Trump instructs military to begin planning for withdrawal from Syria

[mystery-ak]

 By Karen DeYoung, Josh Dawsey and Paul Sonne April 4 at 10:09 AM Email the author

President Trump has instructed military leaders to prepare to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, but has not set a date for them to do so, according to a senior administration official.

In a meeting with top national security officials Tuesday, Trump stressed that U.S. troops can be involved in current training tasks for local forces to ensure security in areas liberated from the Islamic State, the official said.

But the president said that the U.S. mission would not extend beyond the destruction of the Islamic State, and that he expects other countries, particularly wealthy Arab states in the region, to pick up the task of paying for reconstruction of stabilized areas, including sending their own troops, if necessary.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-instructs-military-to-begin-planning-for-withdrawal-from-syria/2018/04/04/1039f420-3811-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.56b1390ae1ce

[Frank Cannon]

Good.

[dfwgator]

Good.

Should never have been there in the first place.

[Frank Cannon]

Should never have been there in the first place.

I live in an area with a high Syrian population. A few are good friends. They all like Assad. Who the hell am I to tell them he sucks. It's none of our business.

[TomSea]

They like Assad but are not in Syria....

Anyway, for the record, some stories are saying we are staying but perhaps, that was before this announcement, it looks like that a bit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/world/middleeast/trump-syria-troops.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-agrees-to-keep-us-troops-in-syria-for-undetermined-period-of-time/ar-AAvsM7Y

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump reluctantly agreed in a meeting with his national security team on Tuesday to keep U.S. troops in Syria for an undetermined period of time with the goal of defeating ISIS, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

[TomSea]

ISIS would have thrived more if the US did not get involved.

[TomSea]

 

I only say that in jest, what if we suffer a lot of fatalities for being there?  If we are staying as some stories claim, something to watch.

Anyway, terrorists since the Bush administration, have been able to attack us from Syria, if one says we never should have been there, then, one almost needs to say the same about being Iraq.

Syria was to Iraq what Turkey has been to Syria in the current conflict.

Obama should not have withdrawn almost all troops from Iraq under the advice of almost everyone, Pineda and on down the line. One can see Obama's view maybe, that it would cost and we might lose soldiers just being there. The Surge actually did a lot to pacify Iraq.