Analysis: A premature declaration of victory in Syria? | FDD's Long War Journal
Thomas Joscelyn
Note: This article was first published by The Weekly Standard.
The White House declared on Apr. 4 that the “military mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed.†While the United States is “committed to eliminating the small ISIS presence in Syria that our forces have not already eradicated,†the Trump administration already has an eye on “future plans,†which will rely heavily on other countries “to work toward peace and ensure that ISIS never reemerges.†Indeed, President Trump has vowed to withdraw the 2,000 or so American troops in Syria “very soon.â€
If the Trump administration’s latest rhetoric sounds familiar, that’s because it is. President Obama and his advisers drastically underestimated ISIS and its predecessor organization, referring to the group as the “jayvee†team of terrorism and acting as if it were a purely “local†concern. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama claimed to have brought the Iraq war to a “responsible end†by withdrawing the last of America’s forces in December 2011. Obama desperately wanted others to take the lead in fighting the jihadists in Iraq. But the hasty U.S. withdrawal, driven in part by political concerns, paved the way for ISIS’s surge. By mid-2014, ISIS had seized large amounts of territory across Iraq and Syria, declared itself to be a caliphate, and mushroomed into an international menace.
Read more at: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2018/04/analysis-a-premature-declaration-of-victory-in-syria.php
Okay, advice taken, I'm just wary of getting too entangled again. We are in Iraq; we need to be careful not to get too involved in too many places.
