Donald Trump doubled down on his promise to withdraw the estimated 2,000 US troops from Syria earlier this week, saying all the country really has to offer the US is “sand and death.”
Douglas Macgregor, a retired US Army colonel, author and geopolitical analyst, has challenged claims by President Trump's opponents, including leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi, that Washington's decision to pull out of Syria was a “Christmas present” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Macgregor reasoned that the US withdrawal, hastened by Turkish threats to invade Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria, led the Syrian government to regain control over the area.
“Now we have created an enormous problem for Mr. Putin, because Mr. Putin has cultivated the Turks. Mr. Putin has also cultivated his Iranian and Syrian allies. He's got to make a choice – does he allow the Turks into Syria? Then he loses his position with the Syrians and the Iranians. So the notion that Mr. Putin has somehow or another ‘won' something is absurd. This has been a very clever move on the part of the president,” the former army officer argued.
“The truth is that by getting out of the way, we have eliminated the consensus that was holding these various diverse partners together. There is no reason why the Turks, the Russians, the Iranians should cooperate at all, and that's a good thing,” Macgregor…
