“This report is maddening to me,” said Ret. Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior military fellow at Defense Priorities and host of the Deep Dive podcast. “Its unconscionable to have denied adequate air defense for the risk all of our troops face. We’ve spent hundreds of billions on Ukrainian defenses and we skimped on our own. Shameful.”
He added the longstanding critique that subsequent administrations, including the current Trump team, have not articulated why these troops are even in the Middle East today (2,000 in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq). The outpost in Jordan was reportedly part of U.S. “anti-ISIS” operations in that region just over the Syria border.
“These troops provide zero strategic benefit to the U.S.,” he added. “The claim that we’re there for the ‘enduring defeat of ISIS’ is complete military nonsense. It’s simply untrue. The troops should be withdrawn, immediately. Doing so would not only reduce our risk in the region, it would end the potential for the death of American servicemembers.”
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