As reported by Sputnik, “on 19 December, Trump declared that the United States had defeated Daesh in Syria, adding that the terrorist group was the only reason that U.S. troops were fighting in the Middle Eastern country during his presidency.
About 2,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed in Syria as part of a campaign to defeat Daesh.” This is while the U.S. President’s claims are in contrast with the American authorities’ support for the Takfiri groups in Syria and other countries in the region.
In any case, Mattis resigned immediately after Trump’s announcement about the withdrawal of American troops from Syria. In a letter to United States President, he announced his disagreement with Trump on various subjects. He said he would step down so that Trump could have a defense secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours.”
“Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects,” Mattis said in his resignation letter, “I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”
As for Trump, he didn’t resist Mattis’ resignation at all, but welcomed this decision!
“I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019,” Trump tweeted. This will definitely create challenges among the two Democratic and Republican senators with the White House.
The fact is, contrary to the wishes of the American media and the U.S. officials, who are trying to limit the disagreement between Trump and Mattis to a personal dispute, the resignation of the U.S. Secretary of Defense from his post, is a clear indication of the strategic defeat of the United States in Syria, Afghanistan, and the West Asia region.
In other words, the important point here is the strategic defeat of the United States in the region and not the personal debates between Mattis and Trump. The next significant point that should be taken into consideration is the “future of the Pentagon” after Mattis’ resignation. After Mattis, the Department of Defense will continue to operate as one of the centers of conspiracy against other nations. However, Mattis’ resignation will create anarchy in the underlying structures of the U.S. Department of Defense.
This disorder and tactical disagreement will also show itself in the regional approach and foreign policy of the United States. But our experience shows that as time passes, the U.S. policies will be more and more defeated in the region. The Pentagon has also been weakened as a result. Meanwhile, the attempts of the U.S. Department of Defense and some Western media, especially Americans, and the leaders of the two Democratic and Republican parties, has failed to prevent this trend.
Obviously, at this period, the Pentagon has become one of the symbols of regional and international failure in the United States. The withdrawal of American troops from Syria and the resignation of Mattis has left him a failed general, just like his predecessors. This miserable general, as a defeated figure, will have a lot to say about the differences between the White House and the Pentagon and the U.S. failure in West Asia, and his words will be interesting at that time.
Published in Daily Times, December 30th 2018.