Trump’s Syria withdrawal flies in the face of statements from top military and national security leaders

Date:20Dec2018

This is the definition of a quandary:

The move counters public statements by national security adviser John Bolton to the United Nations in September that seemed to remove withdrawal from the options, even after ISIS was defeated.

“We’re not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias,” Bolton said at the time.

The Department of Defense released a short statement Wednesday morning that echoes their work in the region since operations to counter Islamic State militants in both Iraq and Syria began nearly three years ago.