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US troops are still in Syria and nobody can give a good answer as to why
Task & Purpose ^ | 9/16/2021 | JEFF SCHOGOL

Posted on 09/17/2021 7:00:22 AM PDT by budj

The roughly 900 U.S. troops who are currently deployed to Syria are mostly invisible to Congress, the media, and the American public.

Syria is just the latest forgotten battlefield in the Global War on Terrorism. The troops who went there have succeeded in destroying the Islamic State group’s former caliphate, but ISIS fighters are waging the type of insurgency that the American military has a bad track record of defeating.

For the time being, American forces are keeping a lid on the situation and protecting their Kurdish allies from Turkey, who considers them terrorists. But the mission is stuck in neutral. There seem to be no prospects for victory on the horizon but a withdrawal could be catastrophic for the Kurds.

(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...


TOPICS: Egypt; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: armenia; azerbaijan; egypt; erdogan; iran; iraq; israel; kurdistan; lebanon; military; receptayyiperdogan; russia; specialops; syria; turkey; waronterror; yemen
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Mattis refused to obey DJT's order to exit Syria, and he resigned. Time for slow-joe to "defecate or de-pot himself."
1 posted on 09/17/2021 7:00:22 AM PDT by budj
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To: budj

The Forever Wars continue.
Bring ‘em all home.
After telling US and Allied civvies to pack their stuff and get the hell out, first, of course.


2 posted on 09/17/2021 7:13:24 AM PDT by Little Ray (Civilization runs on a narrow margin. What sustains it is not magic, but hard work. )
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To: budj

Protecting the entrance from Iran to Israel’s back door.

The pressure has increased because of the Afghanistan surrender to the Taliban.

WWII? or Armageddon.


3 posted on 09/17/2021 7:17:43 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: budj
For the time being, American forces are keeping a lid on the situation and protecting their Kurdish allies from Turkey, who considers them terrorists.

This is inaccurate. Whatever is going on with the Turks, what American troops are doing is providing backup, intel and forward air observers for Kurds chasing after ISIS cells who are still operating. They are also preventing Syria from regaining control of the only oil field in Syria, from which we allow the Kurds to truck oil to finance military operations. We may also be collecting cash from this extraction to fund our own black ops, but that's unclear.

The situation is stable as long as we continue to operate in this fashion. If we leave, the Kurds will be hard pressed to keep ISIS from regaining ground.

4 posted on 09/17/2021 7:20:20 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: budj

900 troops? Probably takes about 3 generals to manage that task.

This is all about job preservation.


5 posted on 09/17/2021 7:21:37 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: budj
American troops are there to turn over more secret equipment to the Iranians, Chinese and Russians. American troops remain there, on call to do this because the XiJinBiden administration doubts the ability of the Taliwhackers to SUCCESSFULLY turn over the top secret equipment to America's foes, intact. When General Benedict Arnold Thoroughly Modern Milley gets a call back from his superior, General Li, of the PLA, confirming that all equipment has been received intact, the withdrawal from Syria can begin.

If all secret equipment has NOT been successfully transfered to the PLA, THEN the surrender of secret American equipment in Syria can begin.

I would like to add the '/s' tag, but unfortunately, there is likely more truth than sarcasm in my comment. How far Western society has fallen!

6 posted on 09/17/2021 7:22:03 AM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian (Ceterum autem censeo Justinius True-dope-us esse delendam)
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To: budj

If you thought Afghan was bad, wait for the aftermath of US pullout from Syria : ISIS gets its own oilfields and all the Kurds get dead.


7 posted on 09/17/2021 7:23:46 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Little Ray

The Forever Wars continue.

Been continuing since 620AD - you ain’t stopping it by not fighting the war, rather inviting the “forever war” to your back yard.


8 posted on 09/17/2021 7:26:15 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: budj

I’m afraid the US isn’t a country any longer - rather, it has become a collection of financial, corporate and massive government bureaucratic interests, painted over with a post-modern political and marketing veneer.


9 posted on 09/17/2021 7:33:39 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: pierrem15
The situation is stable as long as we continue to operate in this fashion. If we leave, the Kurds will be hard pressed to keep ISIS from regaining ground.

This is the story of the corrupt US deep-state, like an arsonist who then shows up to help fight the fire, constantly moving from error and crime to plausible explanation in a never-ending chain of causality.

10 posted on 09/17/2021 7:40:07 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: PIF
Been continuing since 620AD - you ain’t stopping it by not fighting the war, rather inviting the “forever war” to your back yard.

Assad was a secular (and minority Alawite) ruler. Saddam Hussein was a secular ruler. Khaddafi was a secular ruler. Mubarak was a secular ruler. As bad as they all might have been, US policy has effectively been to destroy them, and fill the vacuum with chaos and Islamism. How many times this process need to be repeated?

11 posted on 09/17/2021 7:44:09 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: PGR88

“How many times this process need to be repeated?”

Until the House of Saud says we cab quit.


12 posted on 09/17/2021 7:48:01 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: PIF

Been continuing since 620AD - you ain’t stopping it by not fighting the war, rather inviting the “forever war” to your back yard.

__________________________________________________

Oh yeah....The legions of Islam are at our gates now. /s

Last I checked, the West has been invading the Middle East for the last several centuries...not visa-versa.


13 posted on 09/17/2021 7:48:22 AM PDT by Bishop_Malachi (Liberal Socialism - A philosophy which advocates spreading a low standard of living equally.)
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To: mad_as_he$$

cab=can.


14 posted on 09/17/2021 7:49:03 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: PGR88
Assad was a secular (and minority Alawite) ruler. Saddam Hussein was a secular ruler. Khaddafi was a secular ruler. Mubarak was a secular ruler. As bad as they all might have been, US policy has effectively been to destroy them, and fill the vacuum with chaos and Islamism. How many times this process need to be repeated?
All your secular rulers did was keep the more virulent Islamists in check within their own countries - spreading it outside is fine - See Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism.

Repeat process until Islam is destroyed. They killed some 7,036 of us in Iraq and Afghan (no doubt a bunch were killed in accidents and training), We got 900,000 of them. An acceptable ratio.

15 posted on 09/17/2021 7:52:00 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: budj

Because the DC putsch flipped Trump the finger when he ordered them out. They refused by half, and the other half they reclassified as trainers and other such lunacy and didn’t change a thing.

Mattis the “lifelong bachelor” was behind this.


16 posted on 09/17/2021 7:59:37 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up....)
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To: pierrem15
They are also preventing Syria from regaining control of the only oil field in Syria

Why block the Syrians from regaining control of their own oil field?

If China took over US oil assets would you have a problem with that?

Also - the Syrians spent their blood and treasure evicting ISIS - the force of murderous terrorists that Obama created, armed and sicced on them. Isn't it about time that America f*cked off out of the country?

17 posted on 09/17/2021 7:59:38 AM PDT by agere_contra
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To: PGR88
How about some facts to back up that claim? Even if you want to blame the invasion of Iraq for this mess, it's still a mess that has to be taken care of. The cost of staying with a few hundred spec ops troops is minimal, and any war is a "forever war" as long as the other side decides to keep fighting. You can hold your breath and stamp your feet in frustration but that doesn't change the fact that withdrawal is a victory for the other side as we've just seen in Afghanistan.

We could withdraw from all of our overseas military commitments and bring all our troops home, but that would mean building more defense for our own coasts, jettisoning a lot of environmental BS to restore our independence in energy and raw materials, and dramatically curtailing imports. This is all doable, but would first require removing almost all of the business and political elites: it would require regime change at home. Otherwise what we'll wind up with is the left and isolationist right combining to reduce our military position dramatically without any reduction in our commitments. This is a formula for disaster.

18 posted on 09/17/2021 8:00:39 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: PIF

There’s a lot to say for the ‘flypaper’ model of Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Obama literally armed ISIS in the same way that Biden just armed the Taliban. In broad daylight, with captured weapons.

If the US keeps repeating THAT process, it won’t be Islam that is destroyed.


19 posted on 09/17/2021 8:03:22 AM PDT by agere_contra
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To: budj
CIA would probably hate to lose a source of revenue.

"The fertile Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon has long been notorious as one of the world’s major narcotics-growing regions, producing some of the finest quality cannabis, mostly processed into hashish. Today, the country is the third biggest producer in the world after Morocco and Afghanistan, according to the U.N."

20 posted on 09/17/2021 8:03:59 AM PDT by Karl Spooner
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