Donald Trump wants to leave Syrian "mess"

The Pentagon is drawing up plans to fully withdraw the hundreds of US forces in Syria following President Trump's expressed interest in evacuating them, according to a report today (Wednesday) by NBC News.

When asked about whether he had informed Israel about his desire to leave by a reporter, he said “I don’t know who said that. I mean, I don’t know who said that, but we’ll make a determination on that. We’re not getting, we’re not involved in Syria. Syria is its own mess. They got enough messes over there. They don’t need us involved in everyone.” 

Trump had previously wanted to evacuate all the troops in his first term, but was confronted by then-Defense Secretary Mattis, who resigned over this policy shift. Trump then reversed himself and sent most of the troops back.

The US forces in the country are meant to help anti-ISIS forces prevent the terrorist army from making a resurgence, including the Kurdish SDF in the northeast of the country, which is guarding thousands of imprisoned ISIS terrorists.

The Pentagon fears that a withdrawal would weaken the SDF to the point that it would no longer be able to deter or guard the ISIS terrorists, with ramifications for the country and the region.

Furthermore, the Kurds, whom the Americans need to do all this, are under pressure from the new, Jihadist-aligned Syrian government to disarm and allow the state to take over all security needs, with unclear consequences for the fight against ISIS.

In addition, Turkey, the main backer of the rebels who overthrew Bashar Assad, is very openly interested in waging war on the SDF and eliminating what they claim is a "terrorist" threat from the Kurds. An American withdrawal would remove one buffer to such a clash.

On the other hand, Trump is correct that the American forces in Syria and Iraq are isolated and exposed to attacks, as could be seen in the multiple drone and missile attacks on US bases during Israel's war with Iran and its proxies.