A scathing new Pentagon report blames Trump for the return of ISIS in Syria and Iraq
Ellen Ioanes 8/8/2019
A report from the Pentagon Inspector General found that President Donald Trump's decision to rapidly pull troops out of Syria and to divert attention from diplomacy in Iraq has inadvertently aided the Islamic State's regrouping in Syria and Iraq.
The DoD's quarterly report to Congress on the effectiveness of the US Operation Inherent Resolve mission states that "ISIS continued its transition from a territory-holding force to an insurgency in Syria, and it intensified its insurgency in Iraq" - even though Trump said that ISIS was defeated and the caliphate quashed, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Many officials and experts have repeatedly warned that a rapid US withdrawal from Syria would enable ISIS to regroup into an insurgency after their battlefield defeats by the US-led coalition.
The IG's report also explicitly states that the troop drawdown in Syria, which Trump announced at the end of last year, contributed to instability in the region. The drawdown, which prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left the US's Syrian partners in the lurch, without the training or support they need to confront a resurgent ISIS. In Iraq, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) lack the necessary infrastructure to fight off ISIS for sustained periods.
ISIS currently is estimated to have 14,000 to 18,000 combatants, according to the report, who are carrying out assassinations, suicides, crop burnings, and ambushes in Iraq and Syria - different from the large-scale attempts to seize territory since 2014, but a violent threat to civilians in both countries nonetheless. Perhaps more importantly, ISIS is again generating revenue by extorting civilians in both countries, kidnapping for ransom, and skimming money from rebuilding contracts. This decentralized method of income generation - unlike the detailed tax and revenue system ISIS employed during its caliphate - makes the income more difficult to track.
The al-Hol refugee camp in Syria seems to be a perfect storm for ISIS recruitment - thousands of internally displaced people, security forces unable to guard the area against insurgents, and little US support to maintain safe conditions or counter ISIS propaganda.
The Trump administration's decision to focus its attention on Iran reduced its capacity to effectively counter IS in Iraq and Syria, according to Brett McGurk, former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL who served under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
more:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-scathing-new-pentagon-report-blames-trump-for-the-return-of-isis-in-syria-and-iraq/ar-AAFx8P0
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