Who stands to gain if Trump pulls the US out of Syria?

ed note–please pay close attention to what our esteemed Hebraic author going by the name ‘Cohen’ writes in this latest piece–

1. The ‘National Security’ officials quoted in this piece who are ‘very concerned’ about Trump’s planned pullout of Syria are operatives within the same ‘Deep State’ in which Israel has its hooks and fangs deeply embedded and who from the start of Trump’s candidacy pulled every dirty trick in the book first in trying to prevent his election and then having failed in that endeavor, who are now trying to unseat him or at least cause him so much aggravation and distraction that he can’t focus/can’t get anything done.  All can rest assured that Netanyahu (‘Trump’s buddy’ as we are told by so many monoscopic and myopic ‘experts’ within that neighborhood within ‘the swamp’ we refer to as ‘duh muuvmnt’) is not in the least bit pleased with Trump’s announcement and is seething with almost as much rage as he was when the operation aimed at getting the US involved in Syria in the aftermath of the Mossad-engineered gassing of the Syrian people failed as then-president Obama was forced to back down lest contentions with a resurgent Russia arise.

2. Note that according to this piece, both the Defense and State Departments were ‘caught off guard’ by Trump’s statement, having gotten no ‘memo’ ahead of time that this was coming.

Translation–Trump can’t trust them as they are chock-full of deep state operatives who–if warned ahead of time that his announcement was forthcoming–would have put into motion their own operations aimed at preventing this, including more gassings or possibly even some sort of false flag here in the US in which the Assad government would have been blamed/framed, thus forcing Trump’s hand in committing the US towards deeper military involvement in Syria.

3. Of the various unnamed and ‘anonymous’ sources quoted in this piece, please note the one name/face who is proudly front and center, one David Adesnik, Hebraic ‘Director of Research’ for the Foundation of Defense of Democracies and who writes for/sits upon several other NeoCon shtinktanks whose roots run deeply within Tel Aviv and whose sole raison d’etre is in getting wars started that benefit the entire ‘Greater Israel’ project. Note the panic in his statements concerning all the terrorist groups which the US/Israel created and supported in past administrations and how a US pullout is sure to see Putin, Iran, Russia, Hezbollah, and Assad wipe out these remaining rodents who are still scurrying around.

In other words, the warmongers, the NeoCons, Israel’s Likud are not pleased with Trump’s latest decision on Syria.

What this also intimates is that the US forces that have been there in Syria have more than likely been used covertly by Trump’s Deep State enemies in protecting/coddling these terrorist forces, which is why Trump has decided to end it all by pulling them out.

But, but, but…his daughter is ‘Jewish’…His son in law is ‘Jewish’…He says nice thingys about Israel and Netanyahu…The Jews just LOVE Trump…

Yeah, yeah, we know all about it, heard it a million times already.

CNN

President Donald Trump’s unexpected announcement on Thursday that the US would “be coming out of Syria like very soon” is raising concerns among some national security officials who warn that withdrawing now would not only undermine American credibility in the region but prompt a significant escalation to an already devastating conflict.

While Trump has often touted the gains made against ISIS since taking office, his latest comments caught much of his own administration off-guard — including defense officials who have warned that now is not the time to withdraw from Syria.

“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria like very soon,” Trump told supporters outside of Cleveland during a speech that was meant to focus on infrastructure.” Let the other people take care of it now.” 

Several US defense officials have told CNN that the Pentagon has not heard any additional details from the White House since the President’s remarks — adding that the policy hasn’t changed and that they are continuing to focus on their fight against ISIS.

One official said the assumption is the President has had a number of briefings saying ISIS is about to be defeated and that many assume Trump was just rhetorically taking it to the next step.

A National Security Council meeting is set for Tuesday to discuss the administration’s plan for battling ISIS in Syria, a senior administration official confirmed Saturday.

Any decision by Trump to pull out of Syria would also go against the current military assessment, a fact that left some national security officials concerned about the impact of a withdrawal, another senior administration official told CNN.

Who has the most to lose?

The US maintains about 2,000 US troops in Syria, and primarily backs the Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against ISIS, a group that is about 50% Arab and 50% Kurdish; however, much of the group’s leadership is Kurdish.

The President’s apparent desire to exit Syria as soon as possible is likely to raise concerns among US backed groups in the region, particularly the SDF, and could embolden the forces of the Syrian regime, Iran and Turkey, all of which have mostly resisted attacking US allies in Syria due to concerns about US retaliation.

Recently, the presence of US Forces deterred Russian mercenaries and regime forces from attempting to seize oil fields and other territory controlled by the SDF but without the presence of American troops there is nothing stopping those same forces from attacking again.

A similar dynamic exists in Manbij and At Tanf, where US Forces have deterred Turkish and regime forces from any large scale attacks.

The US is also helping SDF forces secure Syria’s border with Iraq as ISIS still maintains a presence in the area but that job becomes much more difficult without American assistance.

A US withdraw could help ISIS

If the US were to withdraw, the de facto spheres of influence that have spared eastern Syria the same kind of fighting and bloodshed that the civil war has brought to the west would likely collapse, inviting a major escalation in the conflict.

That chaos could be exploited by ISIS which has already benefited from Turkey’s actions in northern Syria.

Earlier this month, the US warned that ISIS has begun reconstituting in some areas of Syria because a Turkish military offensive against a northern city has pulled the US’ Kurdish allies away from the fight against the terrorist group.

“We are very concerned about the effect fighting there has had on our defeat ISIS efforts and would like to see an end to the hostilities before ISIS has the opportunity to regroup in eastern Syria,” said Pentagon spokesman US Army Col. Rob Manning, discussing the Turkish offensive against Afrin.

The State Department went a step farther, saying that ISIS has already begun to rebuild in places.

“The fighting in western Syria over the last two months, including in Afrin, has distracted from the defeat ISIS campaign and provided opportunity for ISIS to begin reconstituting in some areas,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said last week.

US officials have been warning for weeks that the Turkish military campaign against Kurdish forces in Afrin, launched January 20, could undermine the fight against ISIS, as Kurdish fighters helping the US battle the terrorist group began leaving to help their compatriots there. But the Turks see the US’ Kurdish allies as terrorists and have strongly pushed back against US claims that their involvement has a negative impact on the campaign against ISIS.

“The claim that the operation conducted against terrorists in Afrin would endanger the combat against DAESH is completely groundless,” said a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry last week, using the Arabic name for ISIS. “The approach that actually undermines the combat against terrorism in Syria is the use of one terrorist organization against another.”

In a January speech laying out the Trump administration’s policy on Syria, then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US would remain in Syria until the group is routed. “The United States will maintain a military presence in Syria focused on ensuring ISIS cannot re-emerge,” Tillerson said at Stanford University. “The fight against ISIS is not over.”

Russia, Iran and Turkey stand to benefit

The involvement of both US and Russian forces in Syria has complicated the conflict, leaving the countries conduct a delicate dance in order to avoid directly attacking one another.

That hasn’t always worked, though.

Several Russians hired as paramilitary contractors to fight with pro-Assad forces were killed by US air strikes in February, according to friends and family of those killed. The US and Russia have maintained “deconfliction” communications channels to avoid direct combat, but the lines do not prevent all conflicts.

A US withdrawal would create a vacuum in the area, similar to what happened after soldiers left Iraq, and most foreign policy experts agree that void would likely be filled by Russia.

Angela Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University, told CNN on Friday that “if the US were to withdraw, it seems to me the Russians would have a free hand” in Syria and the forces “fighting Assad would be weakened.”

“I do wonder if that is something the President thought about when he made that announcement,” Stent said, noting that any departure would elevate Russia’s status to make it “the main power broker in that area.”

Additionally, Stent said, a US withdrawal would help Iran, a country whose forces are fighting alongside Russians in Syria.

If the US were to leave its base located at the At Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, Iran would be able to secure its overland route from Damascus to Tehran, further securing its regional influence.

Given Trump has routinely advocated for tougher policies on Iran, the US would be “cutting off our nose to spite our face” by withdrawing from Syria, Adesnik said.

Along with Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime could also benefit from the economic advantages of seizing oilfields currently controlled by US-backed allies.

The regime lost roughly 90% of its oil production when the civil war began, according to Adesnik.