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Thread: Goodbye to the Middle East- A geopolitical look at US’s declining interests in the re

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    Goodbye to the Middle East- A geopolitical look at US’s declining interests in the re

    Goodbye to the Middle East- A geopolitical look at US’s declining interests in the region

    As an aside, I heard an interview with Tony Shaffer, LTC (Ret) and he agrees with me and the 60 Congress critters who did not vote to condemn the President for exiting Syria.


    This article is interesting because it explains very well why the US interests in the region are falling. And that the US, and other powers, have no interest in north eastern Syria.

    This day was always going to happen.


    On October 7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a partial withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. Soon after, Turkish forces began moving south across the border to strike Kurdish forces which had been until extremely recently under American protection. Two days later the partial American withdrawal was upgraded to a full evacuation of all forces.


    Wailing and gnashing of teeth across the American political spectrum quickly erupted, with many condemning the tactical and political aspects of the president’s decision. I’m of mixed minds:


    On the one hand, the Kurds – whether in Syria or Iraq – have been America’s only reliable regional allies since America’s first major confrontation with Iraq back in the early 1990s. When we have asked, they have answered. Every single time. In many cases U.S. forces didn’t even do the heavy lifting, but instead relegated themselves to providing intelligence and materiel support. Without the Kurds’ assistance the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would have been far nastier affair, post-Saddam Iraq would have been far less stable, the defanging of ISIS and the destruction of the ISIS caliphate would not have happened. In Syria in specific, the Kurds habitually provided at least five times the forces the Americans did.


    On the other hand, the United States was always going to leave Syria. If the Americans were unwilling to commit 100,000 troops to the overthrow of Syria’s Assad government and its subsequent forcible reconstruction, then there was little reason to become involved in a decades-long, grinding multi-sided civil war.


    The primary reason American forces remain in Syria at this point is to limit Iranian penetration. That battle was lost six years ago when then-President Obama allowed the Syrian government to cross Obama’s own red line on the use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. Obama made it crystal clear that any U.S. military action would be small scale, focused on Special Operations Forces, and largely dedicated to backing up the Syrian Kurds. Whether under Obama or Trump, an American withdrawal has always been inevitable. It’s just taken seven years of Syrian-Russian-Iranian victories on the battlefield and the large-scale dismemberment of the ISIS Caliphate to make it imminent.


    Aside from the Iranian vector, American national and strategic interests in Syria are utterly nonexistent. Syria – even backed up by Iran – is a military pigmy that Israel could easily shatter. If Jerusalem really wanted to, it could roll into Damascus in a long weekend. (Sticking around, of course, would be a barrel of shiv-wielding monkeys.) American interests in Lebanon are less than American interests in Syria. Jordan has been a de facto Israeli client state for years. And that is quite literally all she wrote.
    Read the rest of the article at the link.
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ


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    donttread (10-22-2019)

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    donttread's Avatar Senior Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    Goodbye to the Middle East- A geopolitical look at US’s declining interests in the region

    As an aside, I heard an interview with Tony Shaffer, LTC (Ret) and he agrees with me and the 60 Congress critters who did not vote to condemn the President for exiting Syria.


    This article is interesting because it explains very well why the US interests in the region are falling. And that the US, and other powers, have no interest in north eastern Syria.



    Read the rest of the article at the link.
    The faster we get out the better.

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    Captdon's Avatar Senior Member
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    National Interests change. The ME has nothing we need any longer. It as simple as that. It's no different than NATO. Some things become a habit.
    Liberals are a clear and present danger to our nation
    Pick your enemies carefully.






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    Peter1469 (10-22-2019)

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    Tahuyaman's Avatar Senior Member
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    Great article. I've read other stuff by Peter Zeihan. I usually agree with his view.

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    Peter1469 (10-22-2019)

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