FORGIVENESS NOT PERMISSION: In yet another sign that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria ordered by President Trump was done with no advance planning, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said U.S. forces would not be staying in neighboring Iraq to fight ISIS after all.
“We’ll reposition as they come out of northeast Syria into Iraq. You know, eventually, their destination is home,” said Esper, speaking to reporters during a stop in Saudi Arabia, before heading to Baghdad for a face-to-face meeting with the Iraqi defense minister.
Iraq’s military command said yesterday the U.S. troops — which Esper had initially said would protect Iraq and conduct cross-border operations — do not have permission to stay in the country.
“What we’ve got to do is pull them out deliberately, out of northeast Syria, and make our preparations to go home from there,” Esper said. “The aim isn’t to stay in Iraq interminably; the aim is to pull our soldiers out and eventually get them back home.”
SPOILS OF WAR: After an hours-long meeting in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an agreement to jointly control the 20 mile border region of northern Syria that Turkey wants as a buffer zone, and to repatriate up to 2 million refugees to Syria.
Kurdish forces have been given another six days to clear the border zone, before Russian and Turkish troops will take control and begin joint military patrols. The U.S. says the Syrian Kurdish fighters have already completed their withdrawal.
“At this stage, there is no further need to conduct a new operation outside the present operation area,” said Turkey’s Defense Ministry, according to the AP.
CLEARING OR CLEANSING? Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine argues that by clearing the Kurds out of the border strip, Erdogan is effectively engaging in ethnic cleansing.
“The idea of the Turks — what they want to do is they want to push the Kurds out of Kurdish territory in northern Syria and then resettle a lot of non-Kurdish Syrians there,” Kaine said on CNN yesterday. “It’s a form of ethnic cleansing and that’s what the military leadership has warned President Trump about, but he doesn’t care.”
SANCTIONS STALLED: Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell is urging his fellow lawmakers to “think extremely carefully” before slapping punitive economic sanctions on Syria, something he said could simply push the NATO ally further “into the arms of the Russians.”
“I’m aware there is some appetite on both sides of the aisle to quickly reach for the toolbox of sanctions … I caution us against developing a reflex to use sanctions as our tool of first, last and only resort in implementing our foreign policy,” McConnell said yesterday, while saying he supports a resolution calling for a continued U.S. troop presence in Syria, and for disinviting Erdogan to visit Trump at the White House.
McConnell’s go-slow approach could doom bipartisan sanctions legislation proposed by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
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HAPPENING TODAY — CENTCOM CMDR: At last check, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, is scheduled to deliver remarks to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference at 11 a.m.
NOT CONSULTED: James Jeffrey, President Trump’s special representative For Syria engagement, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations committee yesterday that he was consulted about the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.
“I was consulted on the framework of that call, the points that the president was going to make and such. The specific decision to withdraw our troops has been a longstanding debate within the administration, going back to early 2018,” Jeffrey said.
But when questioned by Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney if he had been advised about the decision ahead of time, Jeffrey replied, “That specific decision, I was not in advance.’
ESPER ON THE CALL: In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Secretary Esper said he was listening in on the Oct. 6 phone call between Trump and Erdogan, and that in the days before the call his Turkish counterpart warned him that Turkey would be going into Syria.
“The minister told me, ‘Look we are going to be coming across. We’ll give you a head’s up,’ and when Erdogan spoke to President Trump he confirmed that, and notified us that was his intent.”
Esper said up to then he thought the American plan to have U.S. and Turkish troops patrol the buffer zone was “going well,” but that “at some point the Turks decided it’s not moving fast enough, not comprehensive enough whatever the case may be. We saw the pressure building despite our efforts.”
TRUMP BLINKED: In yesterday’s Senate hearing, Romney pressed Jeffrey on the point. “Based upon what you’re saying here, Erdogan basically said, ‘We’re coming in. Get out of the way,’ and America blinked. Am I reading that wrong?”
“Largely correct, Senator, with one very, very important exception,” Jeffrey said. “It isn’t that we got out of the way — because we were not militarily in the way. We had told Turkey we would oppose any such action diplomatically and through sanctions.
“Their leadership either didn’t believe it or they thought that their existential security concerns overrode what we might do to them, and they went in, despite a very carefully packaged set of incentives and sticks to get them to stay with the security agreement we had done in August with them.”
NOT A MERCENARY FORCE: President Trump’s critics have noted that despite saying he wants to bring U.S. troops home, he has actually sent more to the Middle East to protect U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
Trump has countered that Saudi Arabia is picking up the full cost of the deplorement, sparking further criticism that the U.S. military is being used as a force for hire.
“American service personnel are not mercenaries. They do not fight, sail or fly under the banner of other countries, and they do not take foreign money for their work — not in pay or benefits or any other compensation,” wrote former Pentagon and State Department spokesman retired Rear Adm. John Kirby in an op-ed on CNN last week.
“President Trump cheapens and insults the men and women of the US military when he reduces their service to a bill of lading,” said Kirby, who is now a paid CNN contributor.
Asked about the criticism, Esper defended the reimbursement from Saudi Arabia as a “different way of burden-sharing.”
“The fact that the Saudis are going to underwrite that is something that we expect of all of our partners and allies, whether it’s Asia or Europe, is to help share the cost, share the burden of either housing, hosting our troops on their land or supporting them in deployments, whatever the case may be,” Esper said.
“We’re not a mercenary force. Mercenary forces do things for the pay. We’re doing this for the three reasons I outlined. One is help defend our allies; second, to deter Iran, so we don’t have increasingly bad behavior; and third, defend the international rules-based order.”
RECUSE ME! The Pentagon announced yesterday that Esper is recusing himself from the review of the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, cloud computing contract.
“Although not legally required to, he has removed himself from participating in any decision making following the information meetings, due to his adult son’s employment with one of the original contract applicants,” said Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution to avoid any concerns regarding his impartiality, Secretary Esper has delegated decision making concerning the JEDI Cloud program to Deputy Secretary [David] Norquist.”
Esper initiated the review after President Trump said he had heard complaints from industry that the lucrative contract was rigged in favor of Amazon.
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal: Esper Tours Saudi Military Site as U.S. Readies Troop Buildup
AP: Defense Secretary Esper To Urge NATO To Pay More To Protect Saudi Arabia From Iran
Military Times: U.S. Military Struggles To Find A Strategy Amid Sudden Policy Changes In CENTCOM Region
AP: Taliban Say New Intra-Afghan Peace Talks To Be Held In China
New York Times: A Shiite Holiday Turns Into a Test of Iranian Power in Iraq
Defense One: We’re Still In the Fight, Trump’s Syria Envoy Tells Congress
Yonhap News Agency: South Korea, U.S. To Hold New Round Of Defense Cost-Sharing Talks In Honolulu
Washington Examiner: ‘Singled out’: California VA to inspect outfits of WWII glamour girls before they visit patients
USNI News: Carrier Ford May Not Deploy Until 2024, 3rd Weapons Elevator Certified
Bloomberg: U.S. Wanting to Buy Fewer Chinooks Sees U.K., U.A.E. Buying More
Defense News: Europeans Propose Siccing Self-Learning Drone Swarms On Air Defenses
USNI News: Pentagon Falling Behind In Using Artificial Intelligence On The Battlefield
AP: Kim orders South’s buildings at resort in North be destroyed
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 23
8 a.m. 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd. — Day two of the Precision Strike Association’s symposium, “Flipping the Game: Imposing Cost Through Multi-Domain Precision Strike,” with Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, delivering keynote address on “The Emerging Threat and a Modernized Nuclear Triad” https://www.precisionstrike.org/events
8 a.m. 100 Westgate Circle, Annapolis — Day two of the National Defense Industrial Association Expeditionary Warfare Conference, with Deputy Marine Corps Commandant for Installations and Logistics Lt. Gen. Charles Chiarotti. https://www.ndia.org/events
9:30 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. — Brookings Institution discussion on “The Navy in an Era of Great Power Competition,” with Navy Secretary Richard Spencer; and Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings. http://www.brookings.edu
10 a.m. 2172 Rayburn. — House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing “The Betrayal of our Syrian Kurdish Partners: How Will American Foreign Policy and Leadership Recover?” with testimony from James Jeffrey, State Department special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS; and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joey Hood. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings
11 a.m. 300 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. — U.S. Central Commander Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie and UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba deliver keynote remarks to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference. https://ncusar.org/auspc
11:15 a.m. 1700 Army Navy Dr., Arl. — National Defense Industrial Association Defense Leaders Forum, with Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson. https://www.ndia.org/events
2 p.m. 2154 Rayburn. — House Oversight and Reform National Security Subcommittee hearing on “The Trump Administration’s Syria Policy: Perspectives from the Field.” http://oversight.house.gov
2:30 p.m. Dirksen. — Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing on United States policy and assistance in Syria. http://appropriations.senate.gov
THURSDAY | OCTOBER 24
All day. NATO Headquarters, Brussels — Meeting of NATO’s North Atlantic Council at the level of Defense Ministers. Possible Mark Esper news conference https://www.nato.int
8 a.m. 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd. — Day three of the Precision Strike Association’s symposium “Flipping the Game: Imposing Cost Through Multi-Domain Precision Strike,” with Air Force Maj. Gen. David Krumm, director of global power programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. https://www.precisionstrike.org/events
8 a.m. 100 Westgate Circle, Annapolis — Day three of the National Defense Industrial Association Expeditionary Warfare Conference with Rear Adm. Steve Parode, director of the Navy’s Warfare Integration Directorate. https://www.ndia.org/events/2019/10/22/24th-ewc
8:30 a.m. 529 14th Street, N.W. — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith delivers remarks on the future of U.S. nuclear policy, at a briefing sponsored by the Ploughshares Fund. Also taking part: Kelly Magsamen, vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress; Mieke Eoyang, vice president of Third Way’s National Security Program; and Kennette Benedict, board member at the Ploughshares Fund. https://www.ploughshares.org/issues
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen. — Senate Armed Services Committee committee hearing on the nomination of Navy Vice Adm. Charles Richard to be commander of the U.S. Strategic Command. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. N.E. — Heritage Foundation discussion on “Recent Business Reform and Opportunities for Trade and Investment in Afghanistan,” with Acting Afghanistan Minister of Industry and Commerce Ajmal Ahmady; and Terry Miller, director of the Heritage Center for International Trade and Economics http://www.heritage.org
FRIDAY I OCTOBER 25
8:30 a.m. 2300 Wilson Blvd., Arl. — Military Reporters & Editors association annual conference, with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy; Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas Modly; Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Robert Burke; Virginia Rep. Rob Wittman; and others Full agenda at https://militaryreporters.org/2019
9:30 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. N.E Heritage Foundation discussion “Treating the Pathologies of Victory: Hardening the Nation for Strategic Competition,” with retired Air Force Col. Tom Ehrhard; and Dakota Wood, senior research fellow for defense programs at the Heritage Foundation. http://www.heritage.org
12:30 p.m. 1777 F St. N.W. — Council on Foreign Relations discussion on “U.S.-Turkey Relations: The Shifting Nature of Two NATO Allies,” with Henri Barkey, chair in international relations at Lehigh University; Naz Durakoglu, senior policy adviser in the Office of Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; and Gonul Tol, founding director of the Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies. http://www.cfr.org
2 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. N.E. — Heritage Foundation lecture on “Honoring America’s Veterans Through Improved Care and Services,” with Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie; and Kim Holmes, executive vice president of Heritage nhttp://www.heritage.org
TUESDAY I OCTOBER 29
9:30 a.m. G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nominations of Dana S. Deasy to be CIO of the Defense Department; and Robert John Sander to be general counsel of the Department of the Navy. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings
10 a.m. 2118 Rayburn. — House Armed Services Committee Future of Defense Task Force Hearing: “Theories of Victory,” with Michele Flournoy, co-founder and managing partner WestExec Advisors; and Jim Talent co-chair Reagan Institute Task Force.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We’re not a mercenary force. Mercenary forces do things for the pay. We’re doing this for the three reasons I outlined. One is help defend our allies; second, to deter Iran, so we don’t have increasingly bad behavior; and third, defend the international rules-based order.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper rejecting criticism that Saudi Arabia’s payments to defray the cost of deploying U.S. troops means they are for hire.
