FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Numbers of Senior U.S. Officers Support Trump on Leaving Syria

Dec. 27, 2018 (EIRNS)—Pentagon reporter Mark Perry’s Dec. 20 column in The American Conservative reported that numbers of senior U.S. military officers fully support President Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, unlike outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, who may also be on the way out.

Perry wrote: “ ‘We need a respite,’ a senior military officer told us in the wake of the Trump decision, ‘and that’s especially true for the Air Force. Those guys have been in the air over the Middle East since Operation Enduring Freedom, back in 2001. These guys are running on fumes.’

“Nor, as we’ve been told, are senior military officers concerned that the announced U.S. withdrawal from Syria gives Putin a victory. ‘Complete and absolute nonsense,’ a very senior officer who served multiple tours in the region told us. ‘I hate to put it this way, but I think it’s true. We can’t repair Syria—and it’s not our job to do it. If Putin wants to inherit it, that’s fine.’ ”

Perry reveals that Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, head of the U.S. European Command, warned Mattis in March that U.S. operations with Syrian Kurds were poisoning U.S. relations with NATO ally Turkey.