In light of the presence of strong local players fighting ISIS
The presence of American soldiers in Syria is useless
Iraqi counterterrorism soldiers after they expelled ISIS from Mosul.
Getty
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What is the reason for the presence of US forces in Syria?
What is the task of these soldiers who wear the American military uniform?
When will it be time for them to return to their homeland?
If you ask an official in the United States any of these questions, you will get the stated American opinion on this subject, and they will insist that the United States is in Syria to ensure the “continuous defeat” of ISIS, and until this goal is achieved, the American forces will remain, With the aim of training and accompanying the allied forces when necessary, in the field, to uproot the remnants of ISIS, and this interpretation has always been the same available when these questions were raised several years ago, despite the noticeable change in the situation on the ground, since the start of the American military operations against ISIS “About seven years ago.
semi army
In 2014, ISIS was a semi-army, a traditional terrorist group, and was able to take over entire cities, and ISIS was the richest terrorist group on earth, earning about a million dollars a day through extortion and taxes on groups. The human being living under his control, and from selling oil on the black market, and the occupation of ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul, in 2014, led not only to the astonishment of the Iraqi army, which lacks organization and effectiveness, but also granted the organization hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of its seizure of antiquities and existing deposits. In the banks that took control of the organization, and ISIS controlled an area of about 130,000 square kilometers, and tens of thousands of people were ready to join ISIS.
But ISIS in 2021 is completely different, as tens of thousands of fighters of the terrorist group were killed, and the territory it controls has greatly decreased, and in fact, ISIS no longer controls any areas, since March 2019, when the US Air Force cooperated With the Kurdish and Arab militias, to destroy the organization and expel it from the Syrian Baghus region.
Although ISIS can have about 10,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, they have difficulty moving, and ISIS attacks these days are isolated opportunistic attacks against fragile checkpoints, and suicide attacks happen from time to time. And the other against targets that have become weak, and even these marginal and primitive attacks have greatly decreased, according to what the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense “Pentagon” said to confront ISIS attacks.
back
Some believe that ISIS could return to its strength if US President Joe Biden withdraws about 1,000 American soldiers present in Syria, and the population in eastern Syria, especially the Kurds, fears that the departure of American forces could make their areas vulnerable to ISIS attacks. But this view suggests that other players in Syria, such as the Kurds and Russians, the Syrian government and Turkish-backed forces, and Iranian-backed militias, have no influence.
This could not be further from the truth. In fact, Syrian and Russian warplanes have been bombing ISIS positions in the Syrian desert for several months, as the Pentagon itself admitted. The Kurdish units continue to carry out ground operations against ISIS cells in the Deir ez-Zor region, and they carry out these attacks independently. These players will continue to fight ISIS, whether with the presence of the Americans in Syria or without them, because doing so is in the interest of their country in particular.
Accordingly, the question that US policy makers need to ask is: What is the point of endangering the lives of American soldiers, at a time when the threat posed by ISIS is being severely confronted by many local players?
What is the point of staying in isolated small locations like Al-Tanf, and being bombarded with missiles and unmanned aircraft (Drones), if our presence is not of any necessity?
The answer to that is simply that there is no purpose at all.
The US military has carried out the task of fighting terrorism in Syria, and no one can reject this fact, and ISIS has become a thing of the past, and the chances of it returning to its activity are very limited, as a result of a number of factors, the most important of which is that the interest of all regional governments is in preventing return to existence.
• ISIS attacks these days have become isolated opportunistic attacks against fragile checkpoints, and suicide attacks that occur from time to time against targets that have become weak.
• ISIS in 2021 is completely different, as tens of thousands of the terrorist group’s fighters were killed, and the territory it controls has greatly decreased, and in fact, ISIS no longer controls any areas, since March 2019, when the US Air Force, In cooperation with the Kurdish and Arab militias, to destroy the organization and expel it from the Syrian region of Baghus.
• ISIS has become a thing of the past, and the chances of it returning to activity are very limited, given that the interest of all regional governments is to prevent its return to existence.
Dan Deptrice Writer for The Washington Examiner
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