Opinion: Best option: Leave Syria, Iraq now

For the last few weeks, U.S. troops stationed in Syria and Iraq have been taking in-coming rocket, missile and drone attacks.

News reports claimed that more than 140 attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria had been carried out with 70 members wounded and no fatalities.

The pentagon faced a quandary that although a response of some kind was required, care had to be taken to ensure that the response taken would not escalate the conflict into a full-blown war.

Officials also worried that while o deaths had occurred as a result of these attacks, it would be only a matter of time until this happened. At that point they would have no choice but to initiate a more decisive retaliation.

Last Sunday the worst possible scenario occurred, and the option to escalate or not became moot. During a drone attack at an area known as Tower 22 on the Syrian/Jordian border, three U.S. troops were killed and more than 30 were wounded. President Biden declared that this is certainly an escalation and that he will respond.

It is past time to take a hard look at the tinderbox that is West Asia. Presently, we have U.S. forces in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman. These forces are stationed at bases, ports and other installations in West Asia and number more than 55,000.

Both Syria and Iraq have requested that U.S. forces leave their countries. These troops are bearing the brunt of the attacks.

We have painted ourselves into a corner in Syria and Iraq, with no good way out. Leave and we are retreating and afraid, stay and more Americans will be killed. We should have left long ago. Our best option is to leave now, to save American lives and to save as much face as we can.

In April of last year, I wrote:

Several thousand U.S. troops remain in Syria and they are being placed in an untenable position. Not only Syria, no other country in the region wants those soldiers there. U.S. troops are beginning to face a more hostile situation every day. It remains just a matter of time before some incident, accidental or not, befalls these folks. What are these service personnel doing in Syria?

Is the U.S. losing the Mid-East?

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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