President Trump ordered the US military to withdraw from a large part of Syria last week. Since then, he has been attacked repeatedly for the decision. By the amount of criticism being lobbed at the President, one should be safe in assuming this must have been the worst policy decision of the Administration. However, contrary to the purveyors of perpetual war, the decision was sound and long overdue. President Trump’s decision will go a long way to stabilizing the region by allowing Syria to re-exert its sovereignty. As an added benefit, this decision also pits Russia against Turkey and ensures the remaining pockets of radical Islamists are eliminated all while saving American lives and money.
Over the years, I have repeatedly written about Syria and it is no secret I have been a vocal critic. This was a war the US should have never created or been involved with. Nonetheless, the milk was spilt. The US and its coalition covertly built an army of radical terrorists to take down Syria’s President Assad that failed to achieve its goals while causing massive death and destruction in Syria. Further, it led to a massive influx of refugees to Europe and the spread of Islamic terrorism around the world. If not bad enough, it inadvertently strengthened the positions of Russia, China, and Iran in the Middle East while reducing the influence of the US. Literally, nothing good came out of this. Still though, President Trump has been viciously attacked by the apparatchiks of the Deep State for daring to remove our military from Syria.
To establish a framework of understanding, it is worthwhile to lay out some basic information about the US involvement in Syria. Not surprisingly, these facts don’t support an argument for a perpetual occupation of Syria. Predictably, President Trump’s critics intentionally leave out important facts relating to our ever-evolving Syria policy like:
• The US never declared war against Syria.
• Syria is a sovereign nation the US illegally conspired to overthrow and invaded.
• The US has no vital national interests in Syria.
• The combined forces of Syria and Russia were having no problem wiping out ISIS and did not need US support or intervention.
• The US presence in Syria risked sparking World War III with Russia on several occasions.
• Syria was destabilized by a direct US policy to arm-train-equip rebel factions that were aligned with al Qaeda and ISIS (as in we instigated and supported the civil war).
• The US only began “fighting ISIS” as an excuse to invade Syria after its initial covert policy of backing the fighters that became ISIS failed to overthrow President Assad.
• Evidence of the use of chemical weapons by President Assad was at best inconclusive and at worst, demonstrated the Syrian government was setup and falsely accused in order to try and bait the US into a direct conflict with the Syrian government and Russia.
• US presence in Syria and support of rebel factions have prolonged the war in Syria.
• The US policy of supporting Islamic extremists against President Assad created a massive refugee crisis and imposed a balkanization of the state.
• The US under President Obama refused to intervene against ISIS in a meaningful way to protect ethnic Kurds and Christians in both Iraq and Syria when it would have prevented mass slaughter and destruction.
• Only after Kurds and Christians had been slaughtered did US intervention under President Trump begin.
• The US has illegally seized Syrian gas/oil fields depriving both the people and government of Syria of vital resources.
• US occupation continues to prevent a full return of sovereignty to Syria and stabilization.
By removing the US from the equation, the withdraw brings US policy into better accord with international laws and norms, which our presence in Syria violates. You would think the diplomats at the United Nations and State Department would be celebrating this instead of attacking President Trump. The anti-war Democrats and the media should also be ecstatic. However, it is clear the facts don’t matter. Only maintaining the narrative that President Trump can do no right matters to these political zealots. Their mission now seems to be to push the tale that the US is selling out the Kurds. This is rich considering the history of Democrats actually selling out the Kurds in the worst ways. For example, did President Clinton back the Kurds in their uprising against Saddam Hussein. The ensuing slaughter of Shiites and Kurds without the promised US support was horrible. Further, if prevented by then President Clinton, the US could have removed any need to ever invade Iraq in the first place. Let’s also mention that it was President Obama’s policy to support the rebels in Syria that became ISIS, which directly led to the slaughter of thousands of ethnic Kurds in Iraq and Syria. President Obama was fully aware of the ethnic cleansing underway and could have intervened to stop it, but refused. In my humble opinion, these are the real sellouts of the Kurds, but according to the Left and the MSM, these policy disasters are apparently okay and get a pass. What equates to a “sellout” in their not so humble opinion is President Trump’s policy to actually back the Kurds with real military support and crush ISIS preventing further slaughter of the Kurds and then pulling out after the mission was accomplished and the area stabilized. Please also understand that the Kurds have understood from the beginning that US support was a marriage of convenience that would end once ISIS was beaten back. There was never any intention or suggestion that the US would occupy Syria and back the Kurds there for ever and ever. The Kurds knew the pullout of US troops was coming for at least two years and that is why they already had brokered a peace deal with the Syrian government. Any suggestion otherwise is simply ill-informed and/or lies.
In addition, with the US now out of the way, President Assad and Russia can focus on eliminating the remaining pockets of radical Islamists. The US understands that the rebel resistance is controlled by radical Islamic groups bottled up in the city of Idlib and backed by Turkey. These jihadists will use women and children as human shields to try and stop any operation aimed at capturing or killing the remaining fighters. This creates a very messy situation for the US if it were to continue its operations against Islamic terrorist groups in Syria and its NATO “ally” Turkey. By handing off the fight now to Russia and Syria, the US avoids an ugly situation and can conveniently look the other way as the civil war is brought to an end. It also pits Turkey and Russia against each other instead of creating contexts for them to work together against the US as has been the case. Now Turkey’s President Erdogan must broker a deal with Russia…a Russia that has no interest in allowing any jihadists to escape and a Russia that will insist on the return of Syria’s sovereignty. This ultimately saves American lives and money while achieving our “stated” objectives in the region. As I wrote all along, it would be Russia that would check the US globalist agenda in Syria, which was doomed to failure. The US simply did not have the kind of interests in Syria to defend that Russia did and was never willing to go to the levels Russia was willing to defend their respective interests.
Rather than wading deeper into the civil war in Syria, President Trump has created a means to honorably extricate the US with our objectives achieved. This is a huge victory, which the Left and MSM are hellbent on robbing not just the President of, but the American men and women that worked so hard to bring about an end to the fighting. Now, because of President Trump righting past policy wrongs, Syria has a real chance to stabilize and rebuild.
By Guiles Hendrik
October 21, 2019
