The US air strikes were against Iranian-backed forces allied with the Syrian government. The strikes were in response to a drone attack on US forces, who occupy most of the Syrian oil fields.
The long US-sponsored effort to overthrow the Syrian government has failed, and the main US allies are working to end the war. Saudi Arabia recently abandoned the US war against the government of Syria and recently reopened its embassy in Damascus.
Turkey and Syria are in Russian-brokered negotiations to end the conflict.
I thought the US policy was to defend national sovereignty and to defend freedom of countries to form alliances with whomever they want.
If that is true, then why are US forces still in Syria?
Should the US work towards a peaceful settlement in Syria and the withdrawal of foreign troops?
More drone attacks on US forces since the air strike. The US commander had these comments about the situation:
In a statement, U.S. Central Command leader Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said, in part, that the U.S. “will always take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing. We are postured for scalable options in the face of any additional Iranian attacks.”
“Our troops remain in Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, which benefits the security and stability of not only Syria, but the entire region,” he added. MSN
Curiously that rationale for US forces is different from what President Trump said in 2019:
Who ever runs the Biden admin sure likes war. We need to end the 2001 war on terror. It’s 22 years later. Are we working on a 100 years war or something?
The only reason we are there is because the FBI and CIA failed to protect US from the 9/11 attacks. They were tipped off. They failed and got way too much power as a reward for failure.
Then they lied about WMD’s and that got us into Syria.
My take is that Trump’s blunt comments were a tacit admission that his attempts remove troops from Syria had not worked. Theoretically, the President could order the troops to leave, but the Pentagon was willing ignore orders and play games with the facts to keep troops there.
As far as the so-called war on terror, it has been a horrific scam. The US supported Al-Qaeda rebels in Syria in covert efforts to overthrow the Syrian government, and many extremists that we supported later became ISIS. US troops have been dying fighting against groups that the US government helped to create.
US intervention created a catastrophic civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed the Syrian economy.
The US helped to create ISIS, then sent forces into Syria to destroy ISIS. Now it is using ISIS as a pretext for continuing to occupy Syria. The brutal scam continues.
The battles appear to be continuing with 19 deaths reported from the Iran-backed side, and both sides are promising more retaliation. Ironically both the US and Iran claim that they are in Syria to fight ISIS, but only Iran is there with the approval of the Syrian government.
“Any pretext to attack bases created at the request of the Syrian government to deal with terrorism and Islamic State elements in this country will be met with an immediate counter-response,” Keyvan Khosravi, spokesperson for Iran’s top security body, was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency Nournews. MSN
Meanwhile, shipments of oil out of the US occupation zone have reportedly resumed. Take that ISIS!
Iran and the Syrian government would be a good starting place, but the US does not need to get an agreement to leave.
Realize that, with the exception of Israel, all the important nations in the Assad-must-go alliance have jumped ship and are now working with the Syrian government. Iran and Russia have been backing Assad, and both now have close ties with China.
The world is moving toward WW3 with US-China proxy wars popping up. The US is going to lose big time if we continue down the path of fighting major wars in Ukraine and Asia while also trying to protect the troops in Syria. It is time to cut our losses.
Wait. Why would you think we would pull out if all we care about is our military industrial complex and prolonging starting wars? That’s your point of view so why would we do something that’s different?
Even Neocons realize there is no way that the US can support wars in Ukraine, China, and Syria simultaneously.
The position of US forces is Syria has become tenuous at best. Iran and Saudi Arabia are both working with China to end the US-supported wars in Yemen and Syria.
