There is a gap between President Donald Trump's distrust of foreign wars that has led to his desire for the U.S. to exit the conflict in Syria and military leaders at the Pentagon who see the need for a comprehensive plan to keep the Islamic State at bay, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Trump announced in late March the U.S. would be withdrawing troops from Syria "very soon."
"I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home," Trump said. "It's time."
Yet ISIS still controls a small foothold in eastern Syria, and military leaders say a continued U.S. presence will be required to ensure the militant group, now estimated to be somewhere between 1,000 to 3,000 fighters, cannot plot future attacks.
With ISIS at bay, U.S. efforts among the 2,000 troops in northern and eastern Syria have concentrated on various missions to stabilize areas that were previously under militant control.
This includes a focus on a small militant force along the Euphrates River on Syria's border with Iraq. U.S. forces advise the Syrian Democratic Forces, made up primarily of Kurds, which has been America's primary military partner in the fight against the Islamic State.
U.S. forces are also at work in northern Syria and in the city of Raqqa, once the seat of power for ISIS, where troops aid contractors in restoring governance and services to the city. While military leaders warn of a possible insurgent revival, Trump wants other countries to be responsible for stabilizing the area.
Military leaders are both trying to complete the job while at the same time attending to Trump's concerns.
"The president has actually been very good in not giving us a specific timeline, so that's a tool that we can use to our effect as we move forward," Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, said this week.
And Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed an optimistic outcome, saying on Friday, "We'll work this all out."
Marine Corps Col. Seth Folsom last month described the remaining militants in Syria as "small, disorganized, fractured groups of ISIS fighters."
The question remains, however, as U.S. military efforts have aided in diminishing the physical presence of the Islamic State over the last four years, what measures might be put in place to address the causes that brought about the insurgent group in the first place.
And the role of Russia is another element to the complexities of fighting ISIS. Russia's support of the regime of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was unlikely to prevent the possible reemergence of the Islamic State, the Post explained.
"Russia is doing a superb job of playing a spoiler role," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "But it is neither capable of dominating a country on the ground nor is it capable of funding any serious form of rebuilding and development."
Cordesman warned insurgent militants could reestablish their presence if an exit from Syria was made too soon and begin attacks in western Iraq.
While Trump has made it clear he wants the U.S. to exit Syria, he has not addressed Iraq, where 5,000 American troops have been working to help local forces battle ISIS.
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