US military intentions in Syria
have never been exactly honest, but are becoming ever less so, as Pentagon
officials loudly declare ISIS to have been “defeated” in the country, but
insist that they intend to remain.
This
is a major legal issue, because Syria never authorized the US
invasion in the first place. US officials always presented the authorization as
being UN resolutions supporting the fight against ISIS, but that would no
longer apply.
Moreover, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pointed
out that Secretary of State Tillerson has repeatedly assured him
that the “only” US goal in Syria is to fight ISIS. This is adding to Russian
concerns about what the US is actually planning on doing next.
Secretary
of Defense James Mattis is trying to present this as keeping “ISIS 2.0” from
coming into existence. While this is also the pretext for staying in Iraq,
there is a major difference between a permanent deployment in Iraq that the
US-backed government there supports, and trying to stay in Syria forever
despite explicit opposition from the Syrian government.
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