'Mission Creep' Confirmed as Trump Replaces Vow to Withdraw From Syria With Embrace of Indefinite Military Presence

Just months after proclaiming to the American public that U.S. soldiers will completely withdraw from Syria “very soon,” President Donald Trump has reportedly agreed to a new strategy under which the more than 2,000 troops currently occupying the war-torn nation will remain “indefinitely.”

“We have to force the United States to leave.”
Click Here: Papua New Guinea Rugby Shop—Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

“The new policy is we’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year,” James Jeffrey, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s representative for Syria engagement, told the Washington Post on Thursday. “That means we are not in a hurry.”

To justify keeping American troops in Syria for an “indefinite” period of time, the Trump administration’s new strategy redefines U.S. “objectives” in the country from “defeating ISIS” to ejecting all Iranian military forces and proxies from the country—despite the fact that Iran’s presence in Syria, unlike America’s, is at the invitation of the Syrian government.

In addition to attempting to expel Iranian forces, the Trump administration’s new “strategy” in Syria will also consist of the “establishment of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community,” notes the Post.

While such an objective smacks of regime change, Jeffrey told the Post that U.S. policy is not that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “must go.”

“Assad has no future, but it’s not our job to get rid of him,” Jeffrey declared.

While Trump has not publicly called for regime change in Syria, Bob Woodward reports in his new book—citing “deep background” interviews with top administration officials—that the president last year ordered Defense Secretary James Mattis to “go in” to Syria and “fucking kill” Assad.