US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on the left, US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley on the right. Click to see full-size image.
On January 6th, an unsigned letter from Brig. Gen. William Seely III, the Marine Corps officer who commands the U.S. coalition against ISIS began circulating media, purportedly announcing that the US-led coalition in Iraq would withdraw.
In a very polite manner, the letter explains that Operation Inherent Resolve respects the Iraqi government’s decision and would start preparing to leave the country within the next few days.
Click to see full-size image
Immediately after the letter began circulating media, the US Department of Defense organized a press briefing with US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in attendance.
The two officials said that they were not aware of it and that its contents didn’t reflect the Trump administration’s policy, saying that there were no plans for US forces to withdraw from Iraq.
The letter was legitimate but was never meant to be sent or made public, Gen. Milley said.
“This was a mistake, an honest mistake,” he told reporters. “We understand U.S. government policy. Nobody’s leaving.”
He said Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, US CENTCOM commander, called his subordinates in Iraq to find out what was going on there. He also concluded the letter was sent in error.
“He used other words that were a little more colorful than ‘mistake,’” Gen. Milley said. “… The bottom line is, it should never have happened.”
The Department of Defense’s Press Secretary Alyssa Farah rejected that there was any change of policy for the US.
There has been no change in US policy with regard to our force presence in Iraq. We continue to consult with the Iraqi government regarding the defeat-ISIS mission and efforts to support the Iraqi Security Forces.
— Alyssa Farah (@PentagonPresSec) January 6, 2020
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire will brief the House of Representatives on the situation in Iraq in a closed-door session on January 8th.
Despite that, the situation with the letter shows the state of chaos in the US-led coalition, which is further substantiated by the report that NATO was suspending all training of Iraqi forces to ensure the safety of its mission members.
“The safety of our personnel in Iraq is paramount,” acting NATO spokesman Dylan White said in a statement. “We continue to take all precautions necessary. NATO’s mission is continuing, but training activities are temporarily suspended.”
He said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had spoken by phone with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and coordinated the actions.
On January 6th, NATO held a meeting on the Middle East tensions, and Jens Stoltenberg gave a press conference after it.
In the entire press point, Stoltenberg mentioned the assassinated General Qassem Soleimani once, saying that the US had rationalized its actions in a closed doors briefing and that he wouldn’t get into further detail.
“The US provided the rationale behind the action against General Soleimani. And we had several briefers from the United States, from the State and from Pentagon and they briefed and explained to other Allies why they took this action against General Soleimani. I will not go into the details of that briefing. I will leave that to the United States. But we value and appreciate the briefings provided by the United States. I think this provides, or once again shows that NATO is a platform where European Allies, North American Allies, are able to come together and address security concerns for all of us.”
The NATO Secretary General further underlined that all Allies appeared to be aligned in their interest to avoid escalation in the Middle East, but still supported the US.
Asked what would happen if Iran carried out some sort of attack that would allow the US to invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter, Stoltenberg said the following, keeping it rather vague:
“I think the important thing now is to really try to de-escalate and to avoid further increase . . . increased tensions in the region. And I think that if I start to speculate on how we will react, this will not help to de-escalate, it will actually do the opposite. So we call on . . . on responsible behaviour. We believe in the importance of de-escalation and restraint. And that was a clear message from all Allies in the meeting today. I will not speculate, because that will actually contribute to the opposite. That will only increase tensions.”
Despite attempting to present it as NATO fully supports the US actions, even Washington’s NATO allies are struggling in finding due justification in assassinating a foreign official in a third country, which is shown in the vague and unclear answers by the Secretary General, and the immediate halting of NATO’s training activities.
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Hahahaha trump really screwed himself this time, now I’m hearing nutty yahoo is distancing himself from it saying it is between america and iran, just a few days ago he said he supports it, hahahaha its all crumbling down for them
“There has been no change in US policy with regard to US force presence in Iraq. We’ll continue to assault Iraqi government & their guest military officers in pretext of fighting with ISIS mission and efforts to support chaos among Iraqi Security Forces.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.hasbeen denied a visa to speak at the U.N this week in New York
Get the UN outta Jew York and Iran should quit the Kike fest UN……
Hit the filthy KIKES!
The USA is now officially the most hated country on earth that’s ever existed, more than USSR And Nazi Germany. Nearly every citizens bar a few idiots in Israel hate The USA. I hope the Iranians block the straits of Hormuz and bring down the derivatives market and kill the USA so the Yanks can start again perhaps with some honesty this time.
Yeah man,as a NATO member European I am totally agree with you..They are mfers..!
Europe will burn if NATO joins a War with Iran….that is a Promise not a Threat…
second only after israel, the latter needs to be terminated post haste for peace in the middle east. as long as the israeli thieves and murderers are allowed to continue to occupy something which isn’t theirs, peace is impossible.
No. Britain was hated more universally and much longer. About three centuries. But the Internet didn’t exist then. Nor TV, nor universal telephones.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & ZIONATO TERRORISTS BETTER PISS OFF! DEATH TO ALL TERRORISTS!
Essentially the low IQ morons who have crawled on their knees into senior ranks of the US military are unsafe to be near any guns or anything sharp.
They have prostituted themselves for power, and their Pimp is ‘Nuttyyahoo’.
Yeah but all the lousy excuses…Lies…Deception comin’ from Satanic Shithole America will be in Vein….Terrorists need to be Exterminated no matter where they come from…Terrorists will Die…
When the ‘free ‘plunder’ cash’ in the US that the Zionists have horded for years dwindles away, the Zionists will be at each others throats. Paper money is their God.
The Libtard Impeachment fiasco is just a shit fight between two crappy gangs of Zionist thieves, in my opinion :)
We can laugh and watch for a bit longer as they destroy themselves :)
Well I’d be happy to help them a little…I volunteer to be the Chairkicker…
Kicker in Chief :)
Some Generals in Iraq are in discord with Pentagon…or Pentagon try to wrap it as if it wasnt a defeat …
Yeah, I’d guess both. If General Seely really leaked this letter to protest Pentagon policy, then he should probably avoid flying in helicopters for a while.
Deepstate will forment another quagmire for irak to impose a US presence on irak. My guess would be another shiite/sunnite conflict ignition. This time it wont work, all irakis are united for a US troops expulsion.
Maybe a case of trigger finger. It seems that nerves are jangling down at Alamo central.
The NATO Secretary General is an ass. He knows very well, as we all do, that to avoid escalation in the Middle East, US/nato and the isreal regime need to stop their aggressive warmongering and wanton murder.
All involved at nato are liars and cheats and US joyboys. These irresponsible nato freaks will get us all killed.
So it’s already falling apart at the top. Apparently some in the military foresee the people’s reaction to massive body bags coming back to the states. Talmudic Jews, like Trump, don’t care how many goy are killed by his “chosen people” actions.
GTFO OF IRAQ YOU MISERABLE HYENAS
It seems the Iranians have just made their carefully measured response and also delivered a new ultimatum as well. 15 Fateh-313 ballistic missiles were launched at 2 US bases, 10 at Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar, and another base in Erbil where 5 more missiles targeted the base but supposedly 4 of them failed, the base at Erbil was also attacked with approx 40 short range rockets as well. The Iranian ultimatum threatened further responses if the US retaliates against there strike, and declared it was a just a measured response for the assassination of their general, and not an actual escalation of hostilities. So far Trumps denying any US casualties but the Iranians are claiming that 80 US personnel were killed, though I don’t know how they’d know it. Trump’s last tweet tells everyone every things OK and he’ll make a big statement tomorrow.
Pull out the popcorn because this movie will be a good one.