Editor’s Picks: The Trump-style US Withdrawal from Syria

Local Editor

US President Donald Trump claimed victory over Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group] in Syria as he announced his decision to pull out the occupation of his US troops from the Syrian soil.

The White House’s announcement, however, upset the president’s aides and advisors, as well as his opponents. Here you go with some analysis peices following the sudden announcement.

To begin with, The Washington Post’s Editorial Board considered the move “is not the way to leave Syria.”

Trump’s sudden move to yank US troops out of Syria undermined at a stroke several foreign policy goals he has championed. The president promised to finish the job of destroying ISIS [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group], but the withdrawal will leave thousands of its fighters still in place. He promised to protect “Israel,” but it will now be left to face alone the buildup by “Iran” and its proxies along its northern border.

The president’s top national security advisers had carefully developed and articulated a strategy of maintaining a US presence in Syria until ISIS was beyond revival and Iran withdrew its forces — a plan they were defending up until this week. Trump has again demonstrated, to them and to the world, that no US policy or foreign commitment is immune to his whims.

Trump claimed ISIS had been defeated, but that is not the view of the “Defense” and State departments. Thousands of fighters are still in Syria and control splotches of territory in the Euphrates Valley. A US withdrawal will give the extremists an opportunity to reconstitute, as they did in Iraq following the premature US withdrawal ordered by President Barack Obama.

Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay wrote for Reuters “In Syria retreat, Trump rebuffs top advisers and blindsides US commanders.”

Trump overrode his top national security aides, blindsided US ground commanders, and stunned lawmakers and allies with his order for US troops to leave Syria, a decision that upends American policy in the Middle East.

The result, said current and former officials and people briefed on the decision, will empower Russia and Iran and leave unfinished the goal of erasing the risk that ISIS, which has lost all but a sliver territory, could rebuild.

Trump was moving toward his dramatic decision in recent weeks even as top aides tried to talk him out of it, determined to fulfill a campaign promise of limiting US involvement militarily abroad, two senior officials said.

The move, which carries echoes of Trump’s repudiation of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change accord, is in keeping with his America First philosophy and the pledge he made to end US military involvement.

A former senior Trump administration official said the president’s decision basically was made two years ago, and that Trump finally stared down what he considered unpersuasive advice to stay in.

For his part, Martin Farrer briefed The Guardian’s audience with a piece entitled “Trump says Isis defeated. No it isn't, says UK.”

The British government has strongly rejected Donald Trump’s claim that ISIS has been defeated after he surprised his own administration and western allies by suggesting that US troops would be withdrawing from Syria. Pentagon and White House officials were left scrambling after the president tweeted that US involvement in the years-long war was over because ISIS – “my only reason” for being there – had been defeated. Administration sources said the Pentagon was trying to persuade Trump to accept a more phased withdrawal, but the UK’s junior defense minister, Tobias Ellwood, contradicted Trump’s assertion about ISIS, saying: “I strongly disagree. It has morphed into other forms of extremism and the threat is very much alive.”

Martin Chulov, The Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, said that Trump’s move would be a “remarkable gift” to the group, which could be reborn if US troops are allowed to withdraw. And the danger posed by extremists was highlighted by Interpol which said that Europe faced a new wave of terror as extremists radicalized by the conflict in Syria returned to their home countries or were released from jail.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote: “Shocking Syria withdrawal plan is pure Trump.”

Trump once famously said he knew more about ISIS than US generals do. Now he wants to prove it.

His big gamble on a sudden and rapid Syria pullout, which broke on Wednesday, is classic Trump in execution and content after he effectively declared mission accomplished and the defeat of ISIS.

The President announced an apparently impulsive decision that shook the world, showed little sign of nuanced consideration, confounded top advisers and by the end of the day left Washington in chaos and confusion.

It was a move that appeared to clash with the central goal of his Middle East policy -- containing Iran's regional influence -- since it could leave a vacuum for Tehran and other outside nations to fill.

Trump's critics inside Washington, his own party, the military and around the world are already portraying his move as a massive strategic blunder that could open the way for an ISIS rebound.

"It's a mistake of colossal proportions and the President fails to see how it will endanger our country," a senior administration official told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Source: Al-Ahed News