Memes

This seems like what about-ism to the original topic. Regardless, this is a U.S. base that was established during the war on terror.

"U.S. troops returned to Iraq in 2014 after entirely withdrawing in 2011. They returned at the invitation of the Iraqi government, which was struggling to fend off a devastating Islamic State takeover of one-third of the country. The following year, the U.S. deployed troops to Syria to help the nascent SDF defeat the same group." [1]

Although the base was still actively being used by U.S. forces, we were working on removing U.S. troops.

"Another report on Wednesday by Reuters revealed that the U.S. and Iraq will begin talks on ending the American-led coalition troop presence in that country, conveying the message in a letter to Iraq’s foreign minister. The report noted these talks will likely last several months, with a potential U.S. withdrawal far from imminent." [2]. Look at [3] for Reuters article.

Outside of what Biden wanted to do, congress has already implied that they wanted those troops to stay there [4]. Even if Biden ignored the fact that a law requiring this much was struck down by congress (I don't know if he even could), he would be destroying his reputation with law makers and could be risking his public reputation.

The main purpose of the base was to combat Islamic extremists who were operating outside of Syria. We can debate if the war on terror was a good idea, however it was already previous U.S. doctrine. The big thing to remember, is that there was an ongoing effort to remove the base.

You can shit talk the people who put that base there, but I don't think it's fair to say "Biden is not looking after his own people" just because he didn't create some lunatic order to withdraw on short notice like what trump repeatedly did during his presidency.

[1] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/pauliddon/2024/01/25/is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-us-troop-deployments-in-syria-and-iraq/?sh=47cfe13e4a6c

[2] - https://apnews.com/article/congress-syria-troop-withdrawal-matt-gaetz-609353065981287eac3060c7eb6d9f09

[3] - https://www.reuters.com/world/us-iraq-initiate-talks-end-us-led-military-coalition-2024-01-24/#:~:text=BAGHDAD%2C%20Jan%2024%20(Reuters),stalled%20by%20the%20Gaza%20war.

[4] - https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2023-03-08/house-votes-down-bill-directing-removal-of-troops-from-syria