On 13 October, President Trump announced the pullout of 1,000 U.S. troops from Syria after making a deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who launched a military offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria who Erdoğan views as terrorists.
“The U.S. doesn’t have the forces on hand to stop an invasion of Turkey that is 15,000 strong,” Trump said.
Not all the troops, however, were removed from Syria, as Trump promised.
While some troops were re-stationed in Iraq, on 27 October, Trump did an about-face, stating, “But we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil.”
The next day, Trump made it 100% clear U.S. interests in Syria had nothing to do with America’s endless refrain that it overthrows sovereign nations ad invades and destroys them to bring “freedom and democracy.”
In the case of the Middle East, as with the ongoing U.S.-led attempts to overthrow of the Maduro government of Venezuela , it’s about oil… not the bullshit of bringing “freedom and democracy to a nation” that is no threat to America, other than the bottom line of a powerful industry.
As we wrote in the January 2019 edition of the Trends Journal:
John Bolton said the U.S. has a “lot at stake” given the fact that Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and flatly stated: “We’re in conversation with major American companies now. It would make a difference if we could have American companies produce the oil in Venezuela. It would be good for… the people of the United States.”
And last week, President Trump made it 100% clear what the mass murderous American wars are being fought over: “We may have to fight for the oil. It’s okay. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight,” Trump affirmed.
Making good on this promise, the U.S. military is building two new bases in one of the most valuable oil locations in eastern Syria: the province of Deir Al-Zour.
Trump projects the U.S. will generate about $45 million per month in oil from the site.
But where the oil is going is not quite clear.
In October, Trump said, “We’re keeping the oil. I’ve always said that.”
Last Thursday, however, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman stated, “The revenue from this is not going to the U.S. This is going to the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance led by the Kurds].”
As Gerald Celente has noted since the first Gulf War launched against Iraq by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and in subsequent Middle East wars, “Do you think the U.S. would launch this war if its major export was broccoli?”
After directly stating that his change in policy was to take oil from Syria, Trump received an underhanded compliment from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:
“Previous U.S. presidents commit crimes, but get Nobel prizes, and act like defenders of human rights… but they are a group of criminals who act on behalf of lobbies. Trump, on the other hand declares ‘we want oil’ … at least that’s honest.”
The vice director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Rear Admiral William D. Byrne, Jr., said the decision as to how many oil fields the U.S. will occupy will be left to on-site commanders.
Asked whether the United States had a legal right to take Syrian oil by force, Byrne answered, “The legal basis for this comes under the commander-in-chief’s authority for us to be conducting counter-terrorism efforts against ISIS. And I – I get your point when you’re trying to decouple the ISIS issue from the Syria issue, but it is not a decoupled issue.”
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: As reported in previous issues of the Trends Journal, President Trump has been chastised by the mainstream media and the Democratic Party for his promised troop withdrawal from Syria because he “abandoned our Kurdish allies.”
TOTALLY ABSENT from media coverage and those who oppose Trump’s actions is the 100% plain fact the U.S. invaded and occupied a sovereign nation that has done nothing to threaten America.
Instead, they justify the war launched by President Obama in 2011, which has killed some 600,000 Syrians and displaced over 10 million, because “Assad has to go” and now justify it under the guise of not only “protecting our Kurdish allies” but to “defeat ISIS.”
And the American public buys it.