KW: At last the encumbant is doing something he said he would do right at the beginning but what else is the U.S. going to do instead of? There will be huge pressure against this move by the neocons that want war and view Syrian occupied territory almost as if it belonged to the U.S. in the first place. According to RT “President Donald Trump’s decision to declare ISIS defeated and order a full US withdrawal from Syria has been met with anger and disbelief by the Washington establishment that hoped for regime change in Damascus.” Sen. Rubio: “The decision to withdraw an American presence in Syria is a colossal, in my mind, mistake — a grave error that’s going to have significant repercussions in the years and months to come.” https://nbcnews.to/2UW5uh6 . Sen Lindsay Graham a warhawk siad ‘With all due respect, ISIS is not defeated in Syria, Iraq, and after just returning from visiting there — certainly not Afghanistan.’ The Atlantic Council’s resident Syria expert, Faysal Itani, was likewise glum in his predictions. “I expect ISIS will be back in some form within a year, and expelling Iran from Syria will not be achieved if the US is not in Syria at all,” he told the UAE-based The National, adding that a more likely outcome would be “a possible military confrontation between Turkey and the Kurds, at least in the border area, if Russia allows that.” The Washington Post’s foreign policy editor Jackson Diehl wondered how Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton felt about the withdrawal, given his recent statements about the US staying in Syria as long as any Iranian-backed forces were there, meaning indefinitely.

I suppose allowing Trump to claim victory over ISIS which is far from the truth is the least the Syrian Army can do to get rid of American occupation but they won’t be leaving altogether as there is a ‘next phase’ and they are staying to protect ‘American interests’  (oil fields and anti Russian positions no doubt). This will not end well for Trump – and Syria.

“We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign.” — White House statement

Source: In Drastic Reversal, Trump Orders Full Withdrawal From Syria After “Victory Over ISIS” | Zero Hedge