Planning is underway for a “full” and “rapid” withdrawal of US troops from Syria, the decision, which would be a reversal from previously stated US policy, was made by President Donald Trump, who has long signaled his desire to get out of Syria. On Wednesday morning, the President tweeted, “we have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” US forces were recently directed by Secretary of Defense James Mattis to establish observation posts along the Syria-Turkish border as part of an effort to reduce tensions between Turkey and America’s Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS.

Even though the US will continue to maintain troops in Iraq with the capability of launching strikes into Syria, a US withdrawal of ground forces would fulfill a major goal of Syria, Iran and Russia and risks diminishing US influence in the region. The US has about 2,000 troops on the ground in the country, where they are primarily training local forces to combat ISIS. The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have had some recent success against the terror group and are on the cusp of capturing the last major town held by ISIS east of the Euphrates.

Estimates vary as to how many ISIS fighters are left in Syria. In the town of Hajin, the terror group’s last redoubt, the coalition estimated some 2,000 ISIS fighters were present. But a Defense Department inspector general report put the number of ISIS members in Syria and Iraq as high as 30,000. The US has forces in Iraq ready to launch attacks in Syria if necessary. In the last few weeks, the US-led coalition fighting ISIS has carried out hundreds of air and artillery strikes targeting ISIS in Syria. Some of those strikes were launched from neighboring Iraq, where the US has over 5,000 troops. Hundreds of US troops have also been training local forces at At Tanf in southern Syria, where Russia-backed pro-regime forces are seeking to oust the US presence.
source CNN

Few students can name a professor willing to go the extra mile to ensure their students finish their studies. Fewer still can say their teacher hired an elite team of mercenaries to save you so you can finish your Ph.D. But a chemistry professor from Sweden did exactly that to rescue a student and his family from ISIS in Iraq. Back in 2014, Charlotta Turner, professor in Analytical Chemistry, decided to act after receiving a text message from her student, Firas Jumaah, telling her to assume he would not finish his thesis if he did not return within a week, Lund University’s magazine LUM reported.

Jumaah told,Firas Jumaah was stuck in an Iraqi town being surrounded and shelled by Islamic State militants. Jumaah and his family were particularly in danger because they are part of the Yazidi ethnoreligious group that was subject to brutal treatment by ISIS, who often tortured or murdered the men and sold women into sex slavery. He voluntarily entered the war zone after his wife in the area told him that ISIS had taken over a nearby village, massacring the men and enslaving women.

The threat of danger prompted the professor to take matters into her own hands and contact the university’s then-security chief Per Gustafson. Following a few days of preparations, Gustafson hired a private security company, which then moved into the war zone in two Landcruisers with four heavily-armed mercenaries and one goal: rescue Jumaah and his family. After finding Jumaah in hiding, they sped to an airport in Erbil Airport, an airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, safely escaping the mortal danger.

“I have never felt so privileged, so VIP,’ Jumaah told LUM. “But at the same time I felt like a coward as I left my mother and sisters behind me.” Luckily, according to the magazine, the rest of Jumaah’s family survived the occupation of ISIS, which has since been decimated in the region thanks to pushback by the Kurdish forces aided by Western countries. He successfully completed his Ph.D. and works at a pharmaceutical company in Malmö. The family also almost paid off the university for the mercenaries they hired.

U.S. news media are failing to inform Americans about the largest military aid package to a foreign country in U.S. history, says If Americans Knew. Congress is poised to pass legislation that will give Israel a minimum of $38 billion over the next ten years. This aid package would likely be of interest to Americans, many of whom are cutting back their own personal spending. That amounts to $7,230 per minute to Israel, or $120 per second, and equals about $23,000 for each Jewish Israeli family of four. A stack of 38 billion one-dollar bills would reach ten times higher than the International Space Station as it orbits the earth.

And that’s the minimum – the amount of aid will likely go up in future years. The package was originally negotiated by the Obama administration in 2016 as a “memorandum of understanding (MOU),” which is is an agreement between two parties that is not legally binding. The current legislation cements a version of that package into law – and this version is even more beneficial to Israel. Among other things, it makes the $38 billion a floor rather than a ceiling as the MOU had directed.

While U.S. media did report on the MOU two years ago, no single mainstream news report informing Americans about this new, even more extravagant version – and that it is about to become law, if constituents do not rise up in opposition. And many Americans likely would oppose the legislation, if they knew about it. Surveys show that 60 percent of Americans feel the U.S. already gives Israel too much money. Many oppose Israel over its systemic human rights violations. While U.S. media are inexplicably ignoring this massive aid legislation, Israeli media and Jewish publications are covering it regularly, and Israel lobbying organizations are calling on their members to support it. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, reportedly pioneered the legislation.

Last week, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) placed a hold on the bill, which means that he may filibuster against it if the bill goes to a vote. In all likelihood it will, given that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has received over $1.5 million from pro-Israel campaign donors, and given that pro-Israel donors often dominate U.S. politicians (recent leaked video footage shows Israel lobby manipulation first hand). AIPAC has reportedly issued an action alert to its members to pressure Senator Paul to end his historic effort against aid to Israel, and has placed Facebook ads targeting him. Paul has issued a statement in response and says he will introduce an amendment in the coming days.

Somehow, U.S. media have so far missed both this extraordinary action by an American Senator and the orchestrated pressure against him, but Israeli media are covering it thoroughly.In other words, Israelis know about the $38 billion legislation, Israeli partisans in the U.S. know about it and are pressuring Congress to pass it, but the large majority of American taxpayers whose money will be given to Israel have no idea that the legislation is even before Congress.
People wishing to support Senator Paul’s attempt to block the aid package can take action here.