{"id":41755,"date":"2018-04-04T23:11:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T23:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smg.go-vip.net\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-wants-troops-out-of-syria-but-his-generals-may-resist\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:00:34","slug":"trump-wants-troops-out-of-syria-but-his-generals-may-resist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-wants-troops-out-of-syria-but-his-generals-may-resist\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants troops out of Syria, but his generals may resist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House is pushing for a \u201crapid end\u201d to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/04\/white-house-says-syria-mission-coming-to-a-rapid-end\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">mission in Syria<\/a>, but the Pentagon\u2019s leadership may be a big hurdle to a full withdrawal of American troops, experts on the region say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Trump is going to pull U.S. forces out, he\u2019s going have to wrestle with military dogma first, according to retired Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow for Defense Priorities who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Bless their hearts, but there is nowhere in the world we are deployed that a military leader is going to go on record and say, &#8216;yeah, I think you&#8217;re right, we should probably shut this down,'&#8221; Davis told Military Times.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A statement from the White House Wednesday morning said \u201cthe military mission to eradicate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/02\/09\/for-us-in-syria-end-game-gets-murkier-as-isis-shrinks\/\">ISIS in Syria<\/a> is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/29\/us-officials-say-theyre-not-conducting-presence-patrols-in-manbij-syria-but-new-photos-show-otherwise\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1000w_q95.jpg_365c20.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US officials say they\u2019re not conducting \u2018presence patrols\u2019 in Manbij, Syria, but new photos show otherwise<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Operation Inherent Resolve recently posted pictures of U.S. soldiers near Manbij, Syria, conducting what the captions called \u201cpresence patrols.\u201d But after Military Times reached out to U.S. officials, the photos were quickly removed.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders later in the afternoon spoke less decisively, telling reporters that the determination to leave Syria will be made in concert with military leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe&#8217;re evaluating this as \u2014 as we go,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to make sure that there isn&#8217;t a reemergence [of ISIS]. And we&#8217;re counting on the secretary of defense and our troops on the ground and our commanders on the ground to help make that determination.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the president seems content with eliminating ISIS holdovers and pulling out, the generals he tends to trust may be interested in pursuing broader, more strategic concerns in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The only reason for staying there in the long run is to hurt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/2017\/11\/21\/putin-and-assad-meet-as-russia-plans-to-scale-back-military-presence-in-syria\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Iran and Russia<\/a>,\u201d Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahoma\u2019s Center for Middle East Studies, told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe United States in this northern Syria region has control over 50 percent of Syria&#8217;s oil, and much of its best agricultural land,\u201d Landis said. \u201cSo by denying that to [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad, we can make him extremely poor and we can stop him from rebuilding.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that goal is nearly impossible with current troop levels, Davis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He compared Syria today to Afghanistan, where 140,000 U.S. and NATO troops were posted when he was deployed there in 2011, and where there were still \u201cvast tracks of the country that were completely off limits to our forces, where the Taliban could run through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Now compare that to Syria, where we&#8217;re not on the side of the host government, and we don&#8217;t have 140,000 troops. We have 2,000,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat means that we have a physical presence on just a few shards of dirt, while you have the Russian forces, the Iranian forces, the Syrian forces, and 20-some odd groups of competing rebel factions all operating in there with competing interests,\u201d Davis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The truth is our presence there will not help anything,\u201d he added. \u201cThere are ISIS people not just in Syria, but in Afghanistan, Libya, and a rising number in the Philippines. Now are we going to be sending more troops to all those places? It will never stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe simply cannot kill our way out of this,\u201d he said.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18094544090468.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18094544090468.jpg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18094544090468.jpg.jpg?resize=300,157 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18094544090468.jpg.jpg?resize=768,402 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18094544090468.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,536 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A U.S. soldier sits in an armored vehicle on a road leading to the tense front line with Turkish-backed fighters, in Manbij, north Syria, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. President Donald Trump expects to decide &#8220;very quickly&#8221; whether to remove U.S. troops from war-torn Syria, saying their primary mission was to defeat the Islamic State group and &#8220;we&#8217;ve almost completed that task.&#8221; (AP Photo\/Hussein Malla)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told Military Times that the coalition mission to the region remains flexible. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are continuing to implement the president&#8217;s strategy to defeat ISIS,\u201d Pahon said. \u201cWe will, however, continue to evaluate our posture with respect to conditions on the ground.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Pahon declined to address the rumors and pictures that have circulated on social media that appear to show the U.S.-led coalition was in fact pushing more troops and equipment to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/22\/us-forces-remain-in-manbij-despite-threats-from-turkey\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Manbij, Syria,<\/a> where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/30\/two-coalition-personnel-killed-by-ied-in-syria\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">two coalition soldiers were killed<\/a> late last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat I can tell you is, throughout CENTCOM, commanders are delegated the authority and the responsibility to position the number of people and resources needed to accomplish the mission and to protect themselves,\u201d Pahon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOccasional modifications to force size would therefore be normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Army <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/02\/27\/gen-votel-russia-is-both-arsonist-and-fireman-in-syria\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Gen. Joseph Votel<\/a>, commander of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/16\/centcom-no-survivors-after-us-helicopter-crash-in-western-iraq\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\"> U.S. Central Command<\/a>, also seemed to advocate for a U.S. presence in Syria longer than Trump wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe hard part, I think, is in front of us, and that is stabilizing these areas, consolidating our gains, getting people back into their homes,\u201d Votel said at the U.S. Institute for Peace on Tuesday. \u201cThere is a military role in this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This contradiction between generals and presidents isn\u2019t new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"5728\" height=\"3804\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg 5728w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg?resize=300,199 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg?resize=768,510 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg?resize=1024,680 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1020 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635998735175263691-gettyimages-534380550jpg.jpg?resize=2048,1360 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 5728px) 100vw, 5728px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Men in uniform identified by Syrian Democratic forces as US special operations forces ride in the back of a pickup truck in the village of Fatisah in the northern Syrian province of Raqa on May 25, 2016. \rUS-backed Syrian fighters and Iraqi forces pressed twin assaults against the Islamic State group, in two of the most important ground offensives yet against the jihadists. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), formed in October 2015, announced on May 24 its push for IS territory north of Raqa city, which is around 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of the Syrian-Turkish border and home to an estimated 300,000 people. The SDF is dominated by the Kurdish People&#8217;s Protection Units (YPG) &#8212; largely considered the most effective independent anti-IS force on the ground in Syria &#8212; but it also includes Arab Muslim and Christian fighters.\r\r \/ AFP \/ DELIL SOULEIMAN        (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Remember when Obama wanted to pull out of Afghanistan? The generals ran a long play around him,\u201d Landis said. \u201cThey completely flanked him and he was forced to accept a surge in Afghanistan to rebuild forces and to stay in the country. And so we&#8217;re still in Afghanistan, and we&#8217;ll be there for a long time to come because no president wants to have a failure on their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Landis said no president wants to end up like Richard Nixon, who eventually accepted defeat in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven though the war is stupid, and probably can&#8217;t succeed, everybody wants to kick the can down the road,\u201d Landis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/03\/27\/us-coalition-want-to-shrink-role-in-iraq-but-isis-fighters-linger-in-the-desert\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IraqiAF_live.png.png?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US, coalition want to shrink role in Iraq, but ISIS fighters linger in the desert<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The coalition in Iraq is working to transition the U.S. Air Force into a less-kinetic role, but Islamic State holdouts across a still-fragile Iraq require attention.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But with recent shakeups in the White House Cabinet, including the departures of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, there appears new national security strategies emerging inside the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201dTillerson outlined wider goals in Syria \u2015 beyond ISIS \u2015 earlier this year, including constraining Iran and defeating al-Qaida,\u201d Jennifer Cafarella, a senior intelligence planner at the Institute for the Study of War, told Military Times. \u201cI think Trump\u2019s desire to withdraw indicates those other goals were only ever notional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And achieving those objectives would require \u201cthe will to stay and fight as well as a physical American presence,\u201d Cafarella said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRussia, Turkey, and Iran are going to divvy up the Syrian spoils and will drive continued radicalization and sectarianism in the process,\u201d she added. \u201cPresident Trump has not fixed the legacy of President Obama\u2019s failed Syria policy. He has cemented it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-862304384.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-862304384.jpg.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-862304384.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-862304384.jpg.jpg?resize=768,512 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rojda Felat, a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander, walks with her group&#8217;s flag at the iconic Al-Naim square in Raqqa on Oct. 17, 2017. (Bulent Kilic\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Trump does manage to ditch Syria, there remain some issues for U.S. credibility down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are real problems to leaving Syria because we will be abandoning the Kurds,\u201d Landis said. \u201cThere is a moral price to pay for abandoning your allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kurdish forces have long-sought an independent state, but \u201cit\u2019s not clear that America can give that to them,\u201d Landis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt would cost a fortune. And now is the time to let them know that America can&#8217;t give that to them, because they can still make an arrangement with the Syrian government, which is eager to make a deal with them. If America does it properly, they can make a favorable arrangement for the Kurds,\u201d Landis added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House pushing for a \u201crapid end\u201d to the mission in Syria, but experts on the region see the Pentagon\u2019s operational momentum as the key hurdle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":46829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["flashpoints","your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"5":{"categories":["flashpoints","your-army","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"6":{"categories":["flashpoints","your-marine-corps","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"7":{"categories":["flashpoints","your-navy","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"}}},"categories":[10,15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3406],"class_list":["post-41755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DQQS7TKOLVGJVE4MSS46CLI7CE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-wants-troops-out-of-syria-but-his-generals-may-resist\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump wants troops out of Syria, but his generals may resist - Military Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The White House pushing for a \u201crapid end\u201d to the mission in Syria, but experts on the region see the Pentagon\u2019s operational momentum as the key hurdle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump wants troops out of Syria, but his generals may resist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The White House pushing for a \u201crapid end\u201d to the mission in Syria, but experts on the region see the Pentagon\u2019s operational momentum as the key hurdle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/04\/trump-wants-troops-out-of-syria-but-his-generals-may-resist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Military Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-04T23:11:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T06:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Rempfer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Rempfer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t       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