CARDS on the table….full disclosure too: as a proud American-Israeli (living in Israel), let there be no doubt that the devotion to America’s founding principles and its security is a driving force deep within these pages. This heart alike. Seek and you shall find. Even so, in particular, whatever impacts Israel’s security (as a result of regional instability and geo-political maneuverings), well, that must take precedence. Mind you, as the only thriving, freedom-based nation in the barbaric Middle East, it must also be understood: whither goes Israel, so too the underpinnings of America. Like it or not, both nations are the twin pillars of Western Civilization, or of what’s left of it.
WITH that personal and geo-political backdrop fully established, countless (from all sides of the spectrum) are taken aback by President Trump’s bizarre volte-face regarding Syria, considering the fact that the encircling dangers are ever more perilous and acute, not less. But before we segue to what’s what, President Trump’s assertion that ISIS is no longer a threat is (dangerous) nonsense – albeit, with all the outrage surrounding his abrupt announcement regarding Syria, he kinda, sorta, back-pedaled what previously amounted to “Mission Accomplished!” O RLY?
STIPULATED, due to the stellar war-fighting of US troops, ISIS has scattered from particular strongholds, only to hunker down elsewhere throughout the Middle East landscape and beyond. Sans a scintilla of a doubt, they are reconstituting to pounce. Readying. Not to be forgotten, fighting alongside US troops are the valiant and western-focused Kurds. But, once the US departs, they will be abandoned to a dire fate. Irrefutably, they will be held captive to the merciless designs of a Caliphate-driven leader, Erdogan.
President Donald Trump on Thursday seemed walk back his claim that ISIS, also known as the Islamic State Group, has been totally defeated, which he had cited a day before as the reason for his decision to abruptly pull US troops out of Syria.
Trump on Thursday tweeted that his decision to pull roughly 2,000 US troops out of Syria means other countries, including US adversaries, will have to continue the fight against ISIS.
“Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing? Do we want to be there forever? Time for others to finally fight,” Trump said.
He added: “Russia, Iran, Syria & many others are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says, because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us. I am building by far the most powerful military in the world. ISIS hits us they are doomed!”
NOW, as to the assertion that the US is executing the heavy-lifting on behalf of regional (barbaric) actors, that too is barely worth a damn – other than as a tailor-made excuse to camouflage whatever “deals” have been cut. Regardless, consider what lies in wait, once Russia is allowed to call the (total) shots in the Middle East theater. G-d have mercy. Guaranteed, the absolute knock-on effects will further endanger US security – “Middle East Policeman” caveat, or what not.
INESTIMABLY, if the main requisite and salient lesson from 9/11/01 is properly analyzed, thus, learned, let there be no doubt: running from Islamic Jihad – of which the Middle East theater is its incubator and epicenter – is impossible! Understood?
INCALCULABLY, does President Trump believe that Russia, Iran, Syria, and, no less, Turkey, will act to secure US interests in the region (indeed, they are manifestly grave and manifold) for even a nanosecond?? Moreover, despite enormous and formidable gains – not to mention, sacrifices – by US military boots in chasing down ISIS and a myriad of hydra-based Jihadi groups, who in their rational mind believes that ISIS will not reconstitute itself, post haste? Besides, if US boots are not “necessary” in the Middle East to contain Jihadis, why not pull them out of all (150 foreign theaters, and counting) nations which are decidedly less hot than the Jihadi-laced Middle East? If not, why not?
STILL, before we get to a report (more than) worth internalizing (after all, it is devoid of political/media jockeying, effectively, not meant to be a hammer-blow against President Trump), it is imperative to highlight the gift, yes, a gift, handed to Erdogan – as mentioned, the Caliphate-driven, Muslim Brotherhood Mafia point-man for the Middle East and, by extension, the entire Islamic communal world, ummah. Incontestably.
READERS, know that this Turkish assessment is not for nothing. Not only that, as an acknowledged expert on Islamic Jihad in general and the Muslim Brotherhood Mafia in specific, a particular mainstream interview, Oct. 28, 2013, attested to the same – with a special emphasis placed on Turkey/Erdogan: “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Quest For Global Dominance – An Interview With Adina Kutnicki“, Inquisitr.com. As such, blowing smoke in this direction is a fool’s (and liar’s) errand.
BACK to the highly consequential aforementioned report at worldisraelnews.com
In response to Trump’s announcement regarding the rapid exit of US troops from Syria, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are reportedly joining forces to address the Iranian threat on their doorsteps.
Behind closed doors, Israeli officials were reportedly critical of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of Syria. One senior minister called it a “horrifying moral and a bad diplomatic step.”
“The move does not serve Israel’s interests, harms the Kurds, strengthens [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and will give Iran additional routes through which to send weapons to Syria,” said the minister.
Cabinet ministers and diplomatic officials have also confirmed to Israel Hayom that while Netanyahu said earlier this week that Trump had advised him on Monday that he was pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, and that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had discussed the matter with him on Tuesday, the information was never shared with Israel’s National Security Council or the cabinet.
One minister told Israel Hayom that he thought Netanyahu might have been worried that cabinet officials would vocally criticize the American move. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
According to the terms of the understanding, Russia will continue to give Israel the freedom to strike Hezbollah and Iranian targets and weaponry that threaten the “balance of power” in Syria. According to the Jordanian official, it was these understandings between Trump and Putin that paved the way for the U.S. decision to pull its forces from Syria.
Other high-ranking Jordanian officials have confirmed that Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia are working together to contain the threat posed by Iran and Hezbollah’s presence in Syria. Several of them emphasized that U.S. officials had made it clear that U.S. intelligence agencies would increase cooperation with Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, particularly on sharing intelligence, in a joint attempt to counter Iran’s attempt to create a contiguous Shi’ite corridor from Tehran to Beirut.
Senior Egyptian intelligence officials say that unlike Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Egypt was not advised ahead of time that America was pulling out of Syria.
On Thursday, in a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsiras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in Beersheba, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried the “Iranian web of aggression in the Middle East, which also terrorizes Europe and the entire world.”
“Israel launched a campaign to expose and neutralize cross-border terror tunnels on our northern border with Lebanon. These tunnels were built by Hezbollah with direct support and funding from Iran. … Israel will continue to act in Syria to prevent Iran’s effort to militarily entrench itself against us. We are not going to reduce our efforts; we’re going to increase our efforts,” said Netanyahu.
The Russian forces currently in Syria will take action to restrain Hezbollah and Iranian activity there, according to understandings reached by Israel, the United States, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Jordanian official confirmed to Israel Hayom.
The understandings are the product of behind-the-scenes diplomatic talks that were underway prior to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision this week to withdraw American forces from Syria.
BOTTOM LINE:
MOST significantly, in a counter-intuitive, illogical context, the following is asserted to justify said turning tail: in order to “Make America Great Again”, a pull-out from the hotbeds of the Middle East (which, by the way, are rife with Shiite Jihadis too….even if one, stubbornly, clings to the fantasy that Sunni ISIS is “defeated”…..hence, US boots are no longer required) is necessary to concentrate on the home-front and other matters. Beyond naive. Not only that, those who understand the intrinsic value of the “strong horses‘” rule of Middle East jungle-politics, also know that President Trump is handing Sunni and Shiite Jihadis a mega propaganda tool, in so far that they will be able to recruit (at an exponential rate) under the explosive banner: we chased the mighty US out of the region!! Mark these words.
LIKE it or not, each and every vacuum left by the US (in the most dangerous corners of the world) gets filled by enemy forces – be they Jihadis, their sympathizers, or a combination thereof. Besides (and just as one foreign policy example), decades after Germany’s defeat in WW 2, 33,000 US troops still remain – and with a projected 1,500 (and upwards) more to be added by 2020!
TO wit, while there are valid geo-political concerns for their continuous deployment, it doesn’t take a brilliant geo-strategist to understand this calculus: comparatively, maintaining US boots on the ground in the Middle East not only counters imminent Jihadi takeovers throughout the region; as well as frustrates and mitigates future plots on US soil, they keep Russia in check too – vis-à-vis their thrust as the Middle East’s (non-Islamic) hegemonic power. What’s so hard to understand about that? As is known (or should be), they have been itching for a re-run – ever since the formal collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – since they were dumped and left on the sidelines of Middle East power politics.
MEMO TO PRESIDENT TRUMP:
RESPECTFULLY, as someone who voted for you (all the way from Israel, no less) because of your promise to “Make America Great Again”, it behooves your administration to succinctly lay out the ways in which America’s security will be enhanced by your decision, even if Middle East partners feel betrayed, abandoned, and, above all, shaken to the core! Mind you, it must make sense to those of us who not only understand Middle East and global politics, but who recognize jive-talk when dispensed.
MOST significantly, the triumphant troika featured below (the totalitarians within Iran, Russia & Turkey) have come out victorious – never mind that Gaza’s Hamas terrorists, Syria’s henchman, Assad, & Lebanon’s Hezbollah (all of whom are cat’s paw’s of Iran) are exponentially empowered too. On the other hand, the US – the heretofore super power of the free world – any way you parse it, appears to be running for cover.
AS always, there’s no point in sugar-coating the obvious. Inextricably, the ridiculous notion that there are “understandings” between the US and Russia (and with Israel in the loop too), as per Russia’s “promise” not to empower Jihadi forces and destabilize the region, ask yourselves: how many times have the Russians kept their word? Rhetorical. Besides, rational folks know that spin-meistering ala fairy tales are hardly sound substitutes for prescriptive strategic policy-making!
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