Second, attacks by Iraqi militias on US troops risk sparking a much larger war with Iran. Rather than training and equipping the Iraqi military, US troops in Iraq are likely to spend most of their time protecting themselves from attacks by Shia militias. While Tehran has tried to temper them, the militias’ desire for revenge supersedes their deference to Tehran.
Rather than making America safer, the presence of US troops in Syria risks dragging the United States into yet another unnecessary war in the Middle East that will make Americans less safe.įirst, Shia militias in Iraq-who increasingly act in their own interest as opposed to Tehran’s-continue to target US troops to avenge Trump’s assassination of the key leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Today, the 900 troops stationed in Syria lock the country into its civil war and impede reconstruction efforts.
But countering Iranian influence-real or imagined-in Syria is not a vital US interest and Congress never approved such a mission. After the defeat of ISIS, the Trump administration justified the presence of troops by claiming they were needed to counter Iranian influence. The US military’s continued presence in Syria is illegal and serves no vital US interest. With the myth of the invincibility of the military-industrial complex shattered, there is no reason for Biden to stop.
It requires steely political will, but Biden has demonstrated that if the American public is behind you, you will not only win but flourish. Much of the foreign policy establishment is shocked that Biden proved that the military-industrial complex and its allies in the policy world-the so-called Blob-can be defeated. Our Foreign Policy Elite Has Learned Nothing From Afghanistan
0 kommentar(er)
