With the situation in Syria fragile following the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad, retired Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis told Newsmax on Monday that President-elect Donald Trump is correct to say the U.S. has no obligation to intervene.
The U.S. has approximately 900 troops in Syria, mostly in the northeast to prevent ISIS from reforming, according to the Pentagon. On Sunday, Islamist rebels stormed the capital in Damascus, forcing Assad to flee to Russia, where he reportedly was granted asylum.
In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump wrote: "Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!"
"Trump has said it himself in a Truth Social tweet a couple of days ago, where he said that what's happening on the ground is terrible, but it doesn't have anything to do with the United States, we need to stay out, and I totally agree with him," Davis told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "I've been saying this really for all the time during his previous administration, when he wanted to get our troops out of Syria and was thwarted by, you know, the institutions and all these people talked him out of it.
"I really hope when he comes back in now that he makes good on that and gets our troops out of there so we are not involved in any of this because this can go sideways in a big hurry and there's no value to our country to have those troops there despite what the [Biden] administration said today."
Even though the U.S. could be impacted by the unstable situation in Syria, given that it borders Israel, the U.S.'s strongest ally in the region, Davis said there is very little U.S. forces in Syria could do given their small numbers.
"To think about those troops, they don't provide any military capacity," Davis said. "They basically are there to defend themselves and they can do little operations here. If anybody thinks that they actually can do something militarily, they can't. There's not enough of them."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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