Trump's Syria pullout aimed at aggressing Iran

Finian Cunningham

US President announced in December last year that the United States will pull out its troops from Syria. This is what the other US officials, including the warmongering Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have repeated. But the realities on the ground show something else.

The US is indeed reconfiguring its troops in the region with a change in its policies. Finian Cunningham, famous analyst, has dealt with the issue in his article, " Trump's Syria pullout aimed at aggressing Iran".

US President Donald Trump again portrayed his plan to pull troops out of Syria as a “victory homecoming” and “an end to endless wars”. Then, in stepped Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to clarify what’s really going on: it’s a “tactical change” to put Iran in the crosshairs.

The purported pullout is not a return of US military from West Asia, as Trump has been trumpeting with self-congratulations. It’s more a reconfiguration of American military power in the strategically vital region, and in particular for greater aggressive leverage on Iran.

In his State of the Union speech to Congress, Trump talked about giving a “warm welcome home" to what he called, "brave warriors” from Syria.

It should be pointed out that Daesh would not have been in Syria or Iraq if it were not for criminal American military interventions, covert and overt, in those countries.

In any case, Trump was proclaiming America “victorious”, and so it was time, he said, to follow up on his order given in December for the 2,000 or so troops illegally present in Syria to withdraw.

The day after his nationwide address, Trump reiterated the theme of "glorious homecoming" at a forum of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh, held in Washington DC. This was a two-day gathering of dozens of US allies who have been attacking Syrian territory in the name of fighting terrorists (terrorists that the same coalition members, such as Saudi regime and Turkey, have been fully sponsoring.)

“We look forward to giving our warriors a warm welcome home,” Trump again told delegates after informing them that the Daesh caliphate had been virtually destroyed by US forces and partners. What a naked lie!!!!

His top diplomat Mike Pompeo told another lie to the gathering that the US was still “leading the fight against terror” and that the planned troop withdrawal from Syria was only a “tactical maneuver”. He said that what Washington wanted was for more regional partners to take over military operations from the US.

When Trump first made the announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria on December 19, there was immediate pushback from military figures in the Pentagon and politicians in Washington. Together with a proposed drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan by Trump, it was construed that the president was signaling a wholesale retreat from the region.

Since the “surprise” announcement by Trump, lawmakers within his Republican party have been doubling down to prevent any pullout from Syria or Afghanistan. The US Senate voted through legislation to block any abrupt withdrawal, claiming that, contrary to Trump’s assertions, Daesh has not been defeated and still poses a national security threat. Indeed, the US aims at resuscitating the residues of Daesh and keep them for future plans.  

In other words, the Pentagon is busily rationalizing for entrenchment in the region, not for a retreat.

Last month, while on a nine-nation tour of West Asia, Pompeo was at pains to emphasize to America’s Arab client regimes that Trump’s pullout from Syria was a reorganization of military forces, not an overall withdrawal. During his tour, Pompeo renewed Washington’s project to create an “Arab NATO” for the region, with the top priority being to contain Iran. According to Radio Free Europe, he said, “the United States is redoubling efforts to put pressure on Iran.”

The US has organized a conference to be held in Poland which is dedicated to intensifying international pressure on Iran. The indications are that senior EU officials will not attend the summit as it is stoking tensions with Tehran.

However, the conference in Poland testifies to ramped up efforts by Washington to isolate Iran internationally and provoke instability in the country for regime change. Since Trump walked away from the internationally-backed nuclear accord last year, his administration has been piling on the aggressive rhetoric towards Iran, in particular from his national security advisor John Bolton, as well as Pompeo.

This obsession to confront Iran would explain the real significance of Trump’s supposed pullout plans in Syria and Afghanistan. Both countries have been utter failures for the US. They are a dead loss, despite the self-congratulatory nonsense spouted by Trump.

What the White House is intent on doing is redirecting its military forces in the region away from dead-end causes for a more aggressive stance towards Iran. Pompeo’s “clarifications” about Trump’s troop withdrawal makes it clear that what is going on is not a scaling down of American military power in the region, but a reconfiguration.

Trump himself has indicated that too. In a recent interview with the CBS channel, Trump said that US forces would be reassigned from Syria to Iraq where the Pentagon has several large military bases. He explicitly said that the US forces in Iraq would be used to “keep a watch on Iran” and the wider region.

Thus, the apprehensions among the bipartisan War Party in Washington and some at the Pentagon regarding Trump’s purported troop pullout from Syria and Afghanistan are misplaced. Trump is not “ending the endless wars” that feed American imperialism and its war-machine economy.

Far from it. The Condo King is simply moving the Pentagon’s real estate around the region in order to get a better view of the planned aggression towards Iran.