Pentagon: Syria Oil Secured by U.S. Forces Will Go to Kurds

[jimnyc]

This is great news. If up to me, give it to the Kurds and anyone else in need that lives in the area, like other places have done. It would be nice to ensure every terrorist on earth is dead, but next up it would be nice to ensure none of them get their hands on oil to make any money. Also so that it's not abused, if possible.

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Pentagon: Syria Oil Secured by U.S. Forces Will Go to Kurds

A Pentagon spokesman told reporters on Thursday that revenues from Syrian oil secured by U.S. troops will go to the majority Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), not to the United States.

The SDF is a U.S.-allied coalition that has played a fundamental role in the eradication of the Islamic State from Syria, particularly from the jihadist caliphate’s “capital,” Raqqa. President Donald Trump announced last month that he would withdraw American troops from the SDF’s territory, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), as the Islamic State no longer posed a threat to the region.

American troops are only legally allowed in Syria to combat al-Qaeda and its offshoots and allies. The Islamic State, formerly al-Qaeda in Iraq, split from the group in 2013.

Following the withdrawal from Rojava, President Trump announced that some American troops would remain elsewhere in Syria to “secure the oil.” The Islamic State funded many of its terrorist activities using black market oil sales from territories captured during its peak in 2014-2017.

“The revenue from this is not going to the U.S. This is going to the SDF,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman confirmed, dispelling criticisms from Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and others that America is colonizing and exploiting Syrian resources. “So it’s preventing ISIS (from getting) it, allowing the Kurds and the SDF in there to have control of it as well.”

Following the departure of U.S. troops from Rojava, President Trump insisted that the U.S. would “keep the oil.”

“We’ve secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil. … We’re keeping the oil — remember that,” he said on October 25. “I’ve always said that: ‘Keep the oil.’ We want to keep the oil. Forty-five million dollars a month? Keep the oil.”

Rest - https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/11/08/pentagon-syria-oil-secured-by-u-s-forces-will-go-to-kurds/

[pete311]

This is like stabbing yourself and then putting a bandage on and claiming a job well done.

[Gunny]

This is like stabbing yourself and then putting a bandage on and claiming a job well done.Bad analogy.

Agree or not, we had to swallow the "we're leaving" pill. It is in the US's best interest to do so. Turning around and pulling this is basically reinserting the US into Syrian business and a larger scale, the unrest in the region. I disagree with doing so.

[jimnyc]

This is like stabbing yourself and then putting a bandage on and claiming a job well done.

But IMO, both prior to us ever being around there and still to today - folks should ensure that terrorists aren't profiting from the oil or holding others back. So regardless of how we got there or how we left, it's still a positive in the end to keep things away from them. We can't go forth ignoring any good news that comes out based on decisions in the past that people didn't like.

And IMO, keeping terrorists away & ensuring Kurds get the oil, both huge positives and more than small band aids. It would be nice to utilize more than a so called band aid, and do things more permanently - like eliminating ISIS and ensuring that happens and stands, but the requirements to do so is a larger cost, as in American troops on the ground, likely lives lost & obviously a lot much longer on the ground. It's positive at least, and it's a beginning.

[Gunny]

But IMO, both prior to us ever being around there and still to today - folks should ensure that terrorists aren't profiting from the oil or holding others back. So regardless of how we got there or how we left, it's still a positive in the end to keep things away from them. We can't go forth ignoring any good news that comes out based on decisions in the past that people didn't like.

And IMO, keeping terrorists away & ensuring Kurds get the oil, both huge positives and more than small band aids. It would be nice to utilize more than a so called band aid, and do things more permanently - like eliminating ISIS and ensuring that happens and stands, but the requirements to do so is a larger cost, as in American troops on the ground, likely lives lost & obviously a lot much longer on the ground. It's positive at least, and it's a beginning.I see where you're coming from. I think Trump had it right the first time. Those people have been killing one another for thousands of years, mostly over religion. Why should we be in the middle? Putin isn't going to let that oil go to ISIS. He's already made his statement: Syria is his.

Anyway, regardless how we got out, it was done. Re-introducing ourselves into the aforementioned pissing contests is as pointless now as it ever has been.

Then there are "appearances". Trump, IMO, appears wishy-washy about our involvement. If we were just going to "relocate", we should have just done it and skipped over the whole "we're leaving" episode.

So here's a tidbit of info I went and looked up: Kurds are a mix of Turks, Persians and Arabs. So is Turkey; which BTW, was "Turkmenistan" at one point. So I'm not seeing the ethnic difference between the two nor what their real issue is. Except power, control and $.