The Expanding US Military Presence in Syria Is Not Legal

Rasa - The Pentagon regime has just confirmed that there are “about 2,000” US ground troops in Syria, a major increase from the roughly 500 that they officially claim is the case.

News ID: 435017

Date: 27 November 2017 - 23:50

RNA - The US has lied about troop levels in Syria consistently throughout their occupation. Less than a month ago, Gen. James Jarrard told reporters the US had about 4,000 troops in the country, though the Pentagon at the time claimed he was wrong and the real number was only 503. Adding to the confusion, the Defense Department had also offered figures to Congress on overseas deployments, and those figures said 1,723 troops were in Syria at the time. Despite this, the official troop figure has not changed.

And consistent lies from the Pentagon about their deployments have made the figures less a closely guarded secret than a mockery of transparency. While 2,000 is almost certainly closer to the truth than 500, it’s not necessarily the actual figure; nor is the real intention behind their presence:

- According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, President Trump had promised repeatedly in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the US would not provide any weapons to the separatist Kurdish YPG. These assurances were never made public, and the US has been very public about arming the Kurds, albeit with assurances that they’d eventually take the weapons back when ISIL was defeated, something many are doubting now that Iran has declared the end of ISIL rule in Syria.

- In July, the White House and Pentagon requested authority from Congress to build further “temporary intermediate staging facilities” (read illegal military bases) inside Syria in order to combat ISIL more effectively. This request, it must be noted, comes in the wake of devastating ISIL defeats in Syria, mostly by the Syrian Army and its allied forces Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah. Meaning, there is no more justification for the US occupying troops to remain in Syria.

- The Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency has revealed previously unknown details and locations of 13 US bases and outposts in northern Syria - several of them with airfields. These are in addition to at least two further US bases already identified in southern Syria, on the Iraqi border. CENTCOM (US Central Command) claims the US has no bases in Syria. Quite the opposite, not only do they have illegal bases there, they are also providing training and assist to terror proxies and separatist allies, including the SDF (the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in the north of the country).

- There are no international law grounds for this US military presence inside Syria. CENTCOM cites US domestic law though - an issue quite irrelevant to Syrians. It isn’t hard to conclude that official Washington simply doesn’t want to answer the international law question on Syria.

- The map of illegal US bases in Syria is revealing. It reveals that many of these illegal bases - or “staging facilities” - are nowhere near ISIL-controlled areas. This generates some legitimate suspicion about US motives, especially since American forces have begun to attack Syrian military targets with more frequency and the White House maintains that President Bashar Al-Assad has no future in post-ISIL Syria.

Mind you, it’s not only Syrian forces and military targets that have come under American fire. In a stream of letters to the UN Security Council this year, the Syrian government asserts US air strikes have also systematically destroyed vital infrastructure and economic assets throughout the country for months, and complains that the attacks are “being carried out outside the framework of international legality,” mostly targeting civilian populations AND infrastructure, including oil collection branch stations, oilfields, wells and facilities, electrical transformer stations, gas plants, bridges, buildings, and of course dams, reservoirs, irrigation and power generation facilities, and many other vital sites across the country.

All this and more makes US presence in Syria unraveling, making the Pentagon regime’s untenable position even more noticeable, even within its own ranks. On the other hand, the Iranians, Russians, Hezbollah, and other allied forces are in Syria legally, at the invitation of the UN-recognized state authority. The United States and its coalition partners are not.

At the moment, the latter are trying hard to ignore that elephant in the room. However, the terrorist group of ISIL has collapsed and no longer holds any city or town. The Syrian government and its allied forces, therefore, have every right to raise the volume: Why is the US still here and why are they still performing some legal acrobatics? War-party Washington has gone rogue in Syria for many years now. The time has finally come for the warmongers to just pack up and leave.

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