National Security Adviser John Bolton didn’t want it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn’t want it. But President Donald Trump did, and he just finally got it: the official start of the US withdrawal from Syria.
The administration fought openly for weeks about when — and whether — to bring back all 2,000 US armed forces from Syria after Trump’s December announcement that he wanted their swift return.
That policy struggle, which traditionally is first hashed out in private before a decision is announced to the public, exposed deep fissures between Trump and his top national security officials over America’s commitment to the Middle East and the fight against ISIS.
In Israel on Sunday, Bolton told reporters that US troops would stay in Syria until two conditions are met: The remaining ISIS fighters still active in Syria are defeated, and Turkey promises not to attack US-allied Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria after America left.
And on Thursday, Pompeo delivered a speech in Cairo, Egypt, in which he declared that “when America retreats, chaos often follows” and vowed that “America will not retreat until the terror fight is over.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that defense officials were continuing with their plans to bring US troops home in accordance with the president’s orders, irrespective of what Bolton or Pompeo had said in recent days.
“Nothing has changed,” an official told the Journal’s Nancy Youssef and Dion Nissenbaum. “We don’t take orders from Bolton.”
The report also noted that there are troops in Kuwait and western Iraq prepared to help their colleagues in Syria leave as well as a ship full of Marines and aircraft headed to the region to protect troops while they withdraw. That would actually increase the number of troops in the area to help the withdrawal process.
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/11/18178304/ ... Omo2yc-dAgNational Security Adviser John Bolton didn’t want it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn’t want it. But President Donald Trump did, and he just finally got it: the official start of the US withdrawal from Syria.
The administration fought openly for weeks about when — and whether — to bring back all 2,000 US armed forces from Syria after Trump’s December announcement that he wanted their swift return.
That policy struggle, which traditionally is first hashed out in private before a decision is announced to the public, exposed deep fissures between Trump and his top national security officials over America’s commitment to the Middle East and the fight against ISIS.
In Israel on Sunday, Bolton told reporters that US troops would stay in Syria until two conditions are met: The remaining ISIS fighters still active in Syria are defeated, and Turkey promises not to attack US-allied Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria after America left.
And on Thursday, Pompeo delivered a speech in Cairo, Egypt, in which he declared that “when America retreats, chaos often follows” and vowed that “America will not retreat until the terror fight is over.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that defense officials were continuing with their plans to bring US troops home in accordance with the president’s orders, irrespective of what Bolton or Pompeo had said in recent days.
“Nothing has changed,” an official told the Journal’s Nancy Youssef and Dion Nissenbaum. “We don’t take orders from Bolton.”
The report also noted that there are troops in Kuwait and western Iraq prepared to help their colleagues in Syria leave as well as a ship full of Marines and aircraft headed to the region to protect troops while they withdraw. That would actually increase the number of troops in the area to help the withdrawal process.
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/11/18178304/syria-withdraw-troop-trump-bolton-pompeo?fbclid=IwAR2foUdzBx8YWlUl6rT5oKEVAJCr9dXktvX8FK4lkqxcVl04oOmo2yc-dAg
