U.S. to Pull Troops Out of Northern Syria

Last night the White House announced the United State’s intent to pull its troops out of Northern Syria. The decision comes after “President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey by telephone” about Turkey’s “moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and… will no longer be in the immediate area.” President Trump confirmed the removal of U.S. troops from the area in a series of Tweets this morning, saying “it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars”.

The President also announced “Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years”. Trump warned “if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey”. U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper expressed his concern over the captured fighters, worrying of the “risk that something would happen [like] a prison break”. Secretary Esper emphasized the European and other countries’ “need to repatriate these [prisoners]” to mitigate “the fact that they could migrate to Europe.” There are estimates of 2,000 IS fighters from Europe “and about 10,000 captured fighters from Syria and Iraq” currently under United States-assisted capture.