The unusually frank quarterly report to Congress on the US's military operations against Daesh* in Syria and Iraq also hints that Washington has no exit strategy once the terrorists are defeated.
The latest quarterly report by the Lead Inspector General on the status of Operation Inherent Resolve, the codename for the US military's intervention against Daesh* in Syria and Iraq, has paid extensive focus to Iran, mentioning it 105 times in 130 pages. However, while accusing Tehran of posing a growing threat to US forces, the report admits that the Department of Defense has “no evidence” that Iranian troops or Iranian-allied militia have actually attacked the US in Syria.
The report also hints at a confused US policy in Syria, pointing to Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton's recent statement about keeping US troops in Syria so long as “Iranian troops” and “Iranian proxy militias” remain outside of Iran.
This sentiment, the report admits, has led to “questions about the legal justification of maintaining US troops in Syria, which currently relies on the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against those who ‘planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001,' which has been interpreted as including [Daesh].”
Unlike the presence of the Russian military and Iranian military advisors, the US has no internationally recognized legal…
