Deep State Member Admits Sabotage Of Trump's Policies
Katie Bo Williams @KatieBoWill - 11:46 UTC · Nov 13, 2020
In a
particularly frank moment during an exit interview, departing Syria envoy Jim
Jeffrey acknowledged to me that when it came to troop levels there, “We were
always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops
we had there."
Jeffrey was
always a part of the 'deep state' that tried to sabotage Trump's policies.
As
Williams writes:
Four years after signing the now-infamous “Never Trump” letter
condemning then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as a danger to America,
retiring diplomat Jim Jeffrey is recommending that the incoming Biden
administration stick with Trump’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
But even as
he praises the president’s support of what he describes as a successful
“realpolitik” approach to the region, he acknowledges that his team routinely
misled senior leaders about troop levels in Syria.
“We were
always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops
we had there,” Jeffrey said in an interview. The actual number of troops in
northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the two hundred troops Trump agreed to
leave there in 2019.
...
“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said.
“When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated
ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come
up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both
times. That’s the story.”
...
Officially, Trump last year agreed to keep about 200 U.S. troops stationed in
northeast Syria to “secure” oil fields held by the United States’ Kurdish
allies in the fight against ISIS. It is generally accepted that the actual
number is now higher than that — anonymous officials put the number at about
900 today — but the precise figure is classified and remains unknown even, it
appears, to members of Trump’s administration keen to end the so-called
“forever wars.”
That the
Pentagon, the State Department and the various secret services were and are
lying to Trump is not new. That one of their guys now openly admits this is
refreshing.
As Trump now
knows this, and recently installed his people in the
Pentagon, he may draw the right conclusions from it not only for Syria but also
for Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump’s decapitation strike on the Pentagon this
week is raising fears that the U.S. will accelerate the withdrawal of troops
from Afghanistan, putting newly installed leaders on a collision course with
top generals and others who are urging a more deliberate drawdown.
Current and
former administration officials say Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark
Esper Monday in part over his opposition to accelerating troop drawdowns
worldwide, and especially in Afghanistan. The upheaval accelerated on
Tuesday with the resignation of three high-level civilians and the installation
of loyalists who are expected to ram through Trump's agenda, and continued on
Wednesday when retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, an outspoken critic of the
war in Afghanistan, was brought on as senior adviser to new acting Defense
Secretary Chris Miller.
Any move to
accelerate withdrawals would set up a clash with the nation’s top generals and
other civilians, who have argued publicly against leaving Afghanistan too
quickly while the security situation remains volatile. It would also complicate
President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to leave a small number of troops in the
country to guard against terror attacks.
“A
precipitous and what appears to be near total withdrawal of U.S. forces from
Afghanistan — not on a conditions-based approach advocated by our military,
political and intelligence leadership but rather on an old campaign promise by
President Trump now carried out by hyperpartisan Trump loyalists installed in a
last-minute purge of DoD — is both reckless and will not make America safer,”
said Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA senior operations officer.
The U.S.
occupation of Afghanistan began on October 7 2001. Nineteen years and an
obviously lost war later the removal of U.S. troops from the country is still
'precipitous'?
Macgregor
and Sec Def Miller should draw up a direct order to the commanding general of
U.S. Central Command that tells him to remove all troops from Syria,
Afghanistan and Iraq within the next 30 days. Trump must sign it. Should
CentCom fail to follow the order by the Commander in Chief its leader must be
replaced and court martialed.
That is how
the chain of command should actually work. It would be nice to see it for once
happening that way.
