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A scathing new Pentagon report blames Trump for the return of ISIS in Syria

dimsum

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Oops.

A report from the Pentagon inspector general found that President Donald Trump's decision to rapidly pull troops out of Syria and divert attention from diplomacy in Iraq has inadvertently aided the Islamic State's regrouping in Syria and Iraq.

The Department of Defense's quarterly report to Congress on the effectiveness of the US Operation Inherent Resolve mission said that "ISIS continued its transition from a territory-holding force to an insurgency in Syria, and it intensified its insurgency in Iraq" — even though Trump said ISIS was defeated and the caliphate quashed, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Many officials and experts have repeatedly warned that a rapid US withdrawal from Syria would enable ISIS to regroup into an insurgency after their battlefield defeats by the US-led coalition.

The IG's report also explicitly said the troop drawdown in Syria, which Trump announced at the end of last year, contributed to instability in the region. The drawdown, which prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left the US's Syrian partners in the lurch, without the training or support they needed to confront a resurgent ISIS. In Iraq, the Iraqi security forces lack the necessary infrastructure to fight off ISIS for sustained periods.

ISIS is estimated to have 14,000 to 18,000 combatants, according to the report, who are carrying out assassinations, suicides, crop burnings, and ambushes in Iraq and Syria — different from the large-scale attempts to seize territory since 2014 but a violent threat to civilians in both countries nonetheless.

[More in link]

https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-blames-trump-for-return-of-isis-syria-and-iraq-2019-8?utm_source=reddit.com
 
A few related articles about that oops

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-trump-betrayed-the-general-who-defeated-isis

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/12/donald-trump-isis-aftermath-224986

And this

“I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.”

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/01/04/the-clash-between-trump-and-his-generals/


Big. Oops.





 
The Report is available here.
While there's nothing earth-shattering for anyone who's been following events, it is refreshing to see the situation stated officially and reasonably clearly.

(Don't let the 116 page count scare anyone;  a lot is admin/blank pages.... and there are lots of pictures  ;)  )
 
Journeyman said:
The Report is available here.
While there's nothing earth-shattering for anyone who's been following events, it is refreshing to see the situation stated officially and reasonably clearly.

(Don't let the 116 page count scare anyone;  a lot is admin/blank pages.... and there are lots of pictures  ;)  )

Interesting to see they didn’t miss out on Turkey and the Kurds in Northern Iraq (being supported by CJTF-OIR, including Canada last time
I checked) not seeing eye to eye.

Turkish and Kurdish Forces Wage Low-level Conflict in Afrin

Citing press reports, the DIA reported to the DoD OIG that Turkish forces continued to fight Syrian Kurdish forces in the northwestern Syrian enclave of Afrin in Aleppo province.135 The conflict between Turkish and Turkish-backed forces and Syrian Kurdish forces in Afrin, a traditionally Kurdish enclave, is not part of OIR, although fighting there has twice diverted the attention of Kurdish elements of the SDF to such an extent that fighting against ISIS in the MERV was temporarily suspended. Turkish forces have occupied Afrin since launching an operation to clear the enclave of YPG fighters in January 2018, and Turkey continues to back Syrian opposition forces operating there.136

Regards
G2G
 
Blackadder1916 said:
.... and there are lots of pictures      ;)
Huh, it didn't say that it was written for the Commander in Chief.
To be honest, Trump never crossed my mind;  I know there's not a hope in hell he would either read it or that any of his staff dared tell him there was anything but fawning praise for him beyond the White House lawn.
 
So Turkey didn’t do much against ISIS militarily, despite the fact that ISIS was gradually pushing its way towards Turkey at one point.  Yet they put enough pressure on the Kurds who WERE fighting ISIS that they had to suspend fighting against ISIS to protect themselves from Turkey??  What a great ally Turkey has proven to be time & time again...
 
CBH99 said:
So Turkey didn’t do much against ISIS militarily, despite the fact that ISIS was gradually pushing its way towards Turkey at one point.  Yet they put enough pressure on the Kurds who WERE fighting ISIS that they had to suspend fighting against ISIS to protect themselves from Turkey??  What a great ally Turkey has proven to be time & time again...

Nations don’t have friends; they have interests. Turkey is very much disinclined to have a politically autonomous Kurdistan, allies of the US, on the border of their own Kurdish majority regions... This will be one of the next very violent flash points over the next decade. We will face a NATO ally that is of dubious loyalty to the alliance, waging war against ‘our’ picked insurgency in northern Iraq and Syria. It’ll be a mess.
 
Dimsum said:
Oops.

https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-blames-trump-for-return-of-isis-syria-and-iraq-2019-8?utm_source=reddit.com

I'd blame ISIS for the return of ISIS...
 
Brihard said:
... We will face a NATO ally that is of dubious loyalty to the alliance while, at the same time, hosting U.S. nuclear weapons, waging war against ‘our’ picked insurgency in northern Iraq and Syria ...
Added one more factor to make it even messier ...
 
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