US armored vehicles on the key M4 highway in Syria’s northeast, via AFP.
U.S. defense officials routinely misled President Donald Trump on the number of American troops deployed in Syria, James Jeffrey, former Special Representative for Syria Engagement, revealed in an interview with Defense One that was released on November 12.
In October of 2019, Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. The decision was met with a backlash from officials in Washington as well as the media. As a result, the decision was de-facto reversed.
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said.
Defense officials convinced President Trump to leave 200 troops to guard oil fields in the Syria’s northeastern region. However, according to Jeffery, the real number of troops was “a lot more than” 200. Some officials put the number as high as 900.
“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” the senior diplomat, who left his post earlier this month, added.
Jeffery said each time Trump was tempted to withdraw troops from Syria, he and other officials would come up with “five better arguments for why we needed to stay.”
Currently, at least 500 U.S. troops are deployed in several bases in al-Hasakah and the part of Deir Ezzor, where Syria’s major oil fields are located. The U.S. military maintains a number of attack helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles in the region.
Jeffery’s interview with Defense One is a testimony to how the deep state in Washington works to prevent any shift or reform in U.S. foreign policy.
For the first time I can agree … James Jeffrey, is a ‘Deep State’ denizen …. lol
He looks normal …. but he lied / fudged numbers in order to keep American troops in sufficient numbers to continue their mission in Syria … eh?
Was he right to do so?
Who told him to fudge the info?
The reality is nothing untoward happened …
next
No shit…
Drain the swamp.
if drained America would become a desert inhabited only by lizards
Trump MAGA 2040.
Thank God, I thought for a moment that the United Stateswitz was backsliding on it’s commitment to bring western gliberal values to 7 billion people.
Hopefully, now that the neos are back in charge, they will attempt to make up for lost time, get careless, bite off too much at once and choke to death on whatever the next victim is supposed to be.
ahahhahaahha
This could be why they were so eager to prevent a Trump second tenure. Maybe he found out and hence, the purge in Pentagon. Similar things could be happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. But with the recent sacking of several top officials of the pentagon, Trump might get the Afghanistan withdrawal completed by Christmas, but that’ll take some work on the ground. It’s unlikely that he’ll pull troops out of Iraq. He may even surprise the Shiites by deploying more forces in Iraq. He is also unlikely to pull troops from Syria unless he really want to get back at the deep state. But the fact that it’s in Iran’s interest for the U.S to leave Iraq and Syria suggests Trump will not order a withdrawal. He seems to passionately dislike the Iranian regime for fanning the flames of sectarianism and proxy wars in the Middle East.
Today, Iran is the main destabilizing force in the Middle East, not Israel. Iran’s subversive efforts is preventing peace and stability in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen (Hezbollah fighters are on the ground in Yemen). God help the Middle East, but I have zero doubt that it’s Iran that’ll ignite the great war in the Middle East, not America or Israel. Both these countries want a stable Middle East as it is. Iran doesn’t like the status quo, hence, it’s creation of Militias across the region in preparations for its real goal of taking Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. The Shiite Mullahs in Tehran are really crazy and they’ll keep pushing to take these three cities no matter what, until the whole thing ends in a bloody mess.
They have nearly surrounded Saudi Arabia now. From the Persian gulf, to Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq and Yemen, Shiite forces have almost completely circled the Hejaz. The only thing stopping them right now is the presence of American forces in the region. Gulf countries including Turkey and other Sunni countries must keep aside their differences and forge a military alliance, deploying forces and equipment to protect Mecca and Medina, otherwise, the fall of the Hejaz in the hands of Shiites is imminent.
The only destabilizing force in middle east is Israel since 1948., and USA since 1990.
It was Israel, but it’s now Iran. Israel’s problem is limited at Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Iran wants to be everywhere – Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and even Turkey. All these countries I’ve mentioned has seen some form of Iran’s attempt to stir up trouble through the Shiite communities there. No doubt, Iran is the most destabilizing force in the region and a war against Iran is the only way to stop it, even at the cost of a regional war.
mainly correct—although to some extent SA, Qatar, USA and Turkey produce proxy wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen…you could argue that Israel is an extension of USA policies…I do
Who keeps falling for these lies that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing when he pretends he’s ordering withdrawal. He did the same fake-out two years in a row in practically the same week, followed by missile salvos.
Trump will follow up on this one too with a couple of MOB’s in Syria because Assad used chemicals again again again, and Putin will promise next time he do it Assad will get his S300. Thats the life we and our children will have to get used to.
None knows what Jeffy told Trumpets. We not even know if anything like that happend.
these fucks should all be jailed for life
US status as banana republic confirmed:
The U.S. has come in at number 18 in this year’s Global Prosperity Index, weighed down by its poor scores in health care, low paying jobs, violence, police brutality, racism and terrorism.
America has flatlined in the 18th spot for the past decade, with scores across a number of areas dipping slightly following the 2008 Financial Crisis. Its reading rose slightly in 2019, only to dip back down again in 2020. Nordic nations, Canada, Australia and many rising Asian nations rank at the top now.
According to the index, in health care, basic safety net and access to higher education the U.S. ranks as one of the worst places in the world. It also has set new records for for obesity, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual assaults and depressive disorders. This has been consistent over the past decade.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/901ee952a26e7a7d0cfe6931fcb4c5afdb3d7e5455743f9842f483b5ebd2507f.jpg
hahahahahhaha wow that is sad, too funny, and true! i dont doubt it
trump wanted to be mislead, like all amerikans “the men amerikans most admire tell them the most extravagant lies; the meant they most despise try to tell them the truth”. HL Menkhen
USA should leave that desert shithole alone.Arabs will kill each other anyway with or without the US presence lol
This just shows that anyone with a US military uniform or a slack jawed, mealy mouth ass kissing little worm civilian can tell Trump anything military related and be believed. After all he is a complete military illiterate which isn’t a surprise for this draft dodging Zionist-controlled whore. Maybe if his daughter Ivan, the converted Jew Goyim and that pasty faced, slim suit wearing parasite son-in-law Jared were ever deployed, he might be a little more cognizant of what is really the actual state of all of the US involved wars. You get what you voted for you brainwashed, uninformed, misinformed ignorant morons. As they say in the ghettos: “You just can’t fix stupid! So let me school your dumb ass.”
Wow. Turns out there IS a God, after all… This guy will advise Trump and his newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Pentagon senior adviser accused Pompeo and senior politicians of taking money and getting rich from ‘the Israeli lobby’ By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN Updated 3:41 PM ET, Fri November 13, 2020
(CNN)A new senior adviser at the Pentagon repeatedly said the United States’ support for Israel was the result of “Israeli lobby” money and accused prominent officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, of becoming “very very rich,” from their support for Israel.
Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who was appointed as senior adviser to newly installed acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller this week, made the comments in two media appearances in 2012 and 2019…
Note that they’re reporting this like it’s bad news. Kek kek. I hope he’s there in January, because Biden will never keep him. Not sure what Israel did to piss of Trump, but I have to believe they had some part in the elections fraud. Either that, or Netanyahu congratulating President-elect Biden too early did it. Do I really care what the reason is? NO.
You have to read the whole article. I’ve been waiting twenty years for someone like Macgregor to show up in the administration.
I didn’t mean (above) to imply Macgregor, himself, is some kind of god. I’m just witnessing a second divine miracle: the U.S./Trump hiring someone with a brain and soul and someone that seems to be on my side. God’s sense of humor is also revealed: Macgregor will only be there for sixty-some odd days, as will the new Department of Defense appointees.
The first miracle was also quite extraordinary. Last week Trump fired the Secretary of Defense (No. 1 position in our Department of Defense) and also the people in the 3rd and 4th ranked positions (Undersecretaries of Policy and Intel). The new Sec. Def. is Christopher Miller. Former enlisted infantryman, commissioned army and later a SF guy with combat experience in Afghanistan. He and Macgregor sound like they may be as cynical as me about our overseas ‘adventures’. These were the kind of guys I wish Trump hired four years ago. No idea why Trump would suddenly stack the DoD with anti-Neocons at this point, but I assume it’s for some other dumb reason than being anti-Neocon. We’re not allowed to be happy with our leaders here – there’s always some dumb scam behind it (or they’ll all be booted out in 66 days).
Here’s part of the letter new Sec. Def. Miller sent to DoD employees. Neocon’s heads must have been exploding in flames last week in Washington DC. He’s speaking about Afghanistan and our other Middle East adventures: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a015e161371bd70a1dcc7e5fd144feb319af4f99b70bd21644cb51fdb79fcaff.png
Too late. Its spreading like a fire down over Africa and Caucasus. 20 years more with talk it over as equal partners.
finally correct–as the BLM/LGBT empire collapses your imperialism will disappear—will collapse in less than 10 years (Johan Galtung) celebrate with a sawdust burger from Burger King!
Hats off to Macgregor.. long due ‘news’ but he said that in 2012 and 2019? Anyway.. never taught anyone would ever criticize the Zio sate openly and bring up the their lobby. There was a book written on it and the authors were invited to a major show in the US.. which was canceled last minute.. of course.
Most say Israel will cease to exist when the US dies but I think it’s the over way other, Israel will cease to exist or at least behave the way it does when the US gets its balls back.
Hats off to Macgregor.. long due ‘news’ but he said that in 2012 and 2019? Anyway.. never taught anyone would ever criticize the Zio sate openly and bring up the their lobby. There was a book written on it and the authors were invited to a major show in the US.. which was canceled last minute.. of course.
Most say Israel will cease to exist when the US dies but I think it’s the over way other, Israel will cease to exist or at least behave the way it does when the US gets its balls back.
Always wondered if Trump knew of Soleimani’s killing or if he just played along after the Deep State ordered the hit.
You can’t stop the war machine…sure Trump might have slow them down but look what we have here. Biden won so…they back to first place.
If you see what is happening without a strong rational super power policing; tribal idiots and illusionist otherworldly irrational tyrants and fanatic religious hate preachers like in Turkey and the middle east, or lazy, greedy, Illiterate like in Africa then There are only two solutions; – a strong western power containing madness or – a impenetrable wall around madness letting nobody out in to the civilised world and let them kill each other, waiting to the end of the madness or when one tyrant/ sultan survives to finish him and make the world sane again and bring peace to the population.
Trump’s got another 6 weeks as president so I know what I’d be doing if I was Trump, charge him with TREASON and give him the DEATH PENALTY. Trump got shafted by the SDF too, as soon as they found out Trump wanted to pull out, which was a bit earlier than the rest of us did way back at the end of 2017, they went on a strike for a year, and they didn’t attack Isis again until the Iraqis threatened to do the job for them. Now Trump’s gone Assad will have to be a lot cleverer than he has been, the next President won’t be as honest as Trump was, because as Assad often stated, for all Trump’s misgivings he at least knew where he stood with Trump, he won’t have that same luxury with LGBTQI democratic Biden in power.
Exactly. We cant leave Syria before Manbij the Heart city of the Heart land is conquered. He who controls the Heart city controls the world. This takes time. Its not done over night. I and Bolton, McCain, Whimsy and Mark Esper understand this, Trump not!
u feminized insecure cowards will leave soon—your homeless nation of plywood villages, poverty, crime, racism, rape, obesity, mental illness, fake news and ugliness will be governed by transgender BLM and antifa “the banality of amerika—the radical absence of culture”. Baudrilliard “national civilization is garbage” Kurt Vonnegut as u spend yourself into worse poverty and stupidity your median income now $34,000 per year—enough for a tent and Big Macs…and some trailer park meth
already USA-ISIS/Turkey/SDF fighting over a reduced 12% of Syria…bankrupt USA/Turkey will soon have to import cowrie shells from Papua New Guinea to pay their jihadi proxies