US troop deployment to Syria oil field ‘recruiting tool for Daesh’: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy more troops to northeastern Syria to allegedly protect oil fields and keep them from falling into the hands of the Daesh terrorist group is a “failed policy,” an American political commentator says, arguing that the measure was adopted under pressure following Washington’s abrupt withdrawal of troops from the region and would serve as “recruiting tool” for the Takfiri outfit.

Daniel McAdams, the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute, made the remark during a Friday edition of PressTV’s The Debate program while commenting on Trump’s approval of a new plan to keep 500 American troops in northeastern Syria in order to help the US’s Kurdish allies retain control of oil fields.

The US president indicated on Thursday his desire to protect the oil fields, saying in a tweet that, “We will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS (Daesh) have those fields!”

PressTV-‘US may keep 500 troops in Syria to control oil fields’

The White House is planning to keep 500 US troops in northeastern Syria to guard oil fields there, according to a report.

“He was under universal pressure by the Democratic party and by his own allies in the Republican party, many of whom broke away and voted for a resolution condemning the US exit from Syria although none of them were clamoring to vote when [former] President [Barack] Obama took the US into Syria in an unconstitutional and illegal manner,” McAdams said of Trump.

“President Trump has surrounded himself with foreign policy advisors who do not share his view that having a global US military empire is detrimental toward economic and moral health,” the political analyst said. “He’ll get himself in trouble, he looks like a flip-flopper and now instead of taking troops out of Syria and finally ending Obama’s idiotic regime change policy he is doubling down on a bad bad and he looks foolish in the process.”

Describing the decision as “absurd,” McAdams added: “The US occupation in the Middle East is really a magnet, it’s a recruiting tool for ISIS (Daesh)… So, any occupation of any country is never a force for stabilization, it’s a force for destabilization, history tells us that.”

Michael Lane, founder of American institute for foreign policy in Washington DC, was the other panelist invited to The Debate program, who backed the US decision to deploy troops in northeastern Syria, claiming that the measure would serve the world’s interests.

“The fact is that the United States does have critical interests at stake,” Lane said.

“The entire Middle East region is the world’s critical supplier of energy to the world and that needs to be a stable environment so that energy can flow to world markets. When you have destabilization that occurs as a result of power vacuum and you have groups like ISIS being able to reconstitute and reform themselves and to threaten the stability of the region then it’s not only the United States’ interests but the world’s interests that are at stake. So, anything we can do to continue to the maintenance of stable relations among the various parties in the area is a good thing for the world and good thing for the region,” he added.

In a major U-turn in US military policy, the White House announced on October 6 that the US would be withdrawing its forces from northeastern Syria, clearing the path for an expected Turkish incursion into the region.

Three days later, Turkey launched the offensive with the aim of purging the northern Syrian regions near its border of US-backed Kurdish militants, whom it views as terrorists linked to local autonomy-seeking militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria says the Turkish offensive has killed 218 civilians, including 18 children, since its outset. The fighting has also wounded more than 650 people.

PressTV-UN: Turkey’s incursion displaced 180,000 in Syria

The United Nations says Turkey’s now-suspended offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Syria has displaced about 180,000 people, including tens of thousands of children.

On October 17, following meetings between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US Vice President Mike Pence, Ankara agreed to pause" the assault for five days allowing Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a determined "safe zone" north of Syria.

Pence told reporters on the same day that Ankara’s incursion "will be halted entirely on completion" of the withdrawal of the fighters.

Trump called the ceasefire a "major breakthrough" and said he didn't want the US troops caught in the middle of a Turkish-Kurdish fight.

The US president insisted that the power shift is a win for Washington and fulfills a campaign promise by taking another step in ending America's involvement in "ancient sectarian and tribal conflicts."

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