As we near the 30 day mark of President Trump’s initial announcement that the US would end its occupation of Syria within 30 days, it seems that nothing of the sort is even happening. Of course in the new normal of paradigm shattering news breaking every 30 seconds or so it is easy to forget that a declaration like this was even made, but as the American government has largely shut down (of course, with the ironic continuation of the Department of Defense budget, “How could a warring nation continue without any war?”) due to the failure of Congress and the President to agree on a budget, the planned exit from Syria has largely been forgotten, as Turkey considers continuing its planned invasion of Syria regardless of the continuing presence of US personnel and the Kurds live in the now completely expected state of having no idea who the enemies of tomorrow will be.
After the initial announcement of the withdrawal resulted in some high profile backlash, President Trump bent to the institutional will (a la, former Presidents Obama and Bush Jr.) he seemed to suggest a withdrawal timeframe that would instead be closer to 60 days, or 90 days, or even no withdrawal at all. At this point it might be said that the only thing certain is uncertainty. Maybe Senator Rand Paul was right to announce that in his presidential endorsement he was endorsing the only sure winner, “Entropy.” Sometimes its hard to tell if life is a tragic comedy or a comedic tragedy. (It might be noted that had Hillary Rodham Clinton been in President Trump’s place she would not be so easily swayed by the institutional might of the war-mongers but then again, this might not be the type of scenario where fighting fire with more dangerous fires results in less loss of life…)
There is only one piece of information regarding the fallout from the Syrian withdrawal that has not been completely overshadowed by the government shutdown and considerable political hullabaloo that accompanies such a pointless gesture (because of course Congress today quite bilaterally passed legislation approving backpay at whatever point the government is finally funded, meaning that the government is only continuing to hold hostage the crumbs that are the benefits of state tyranny such as social welfare benefits and Social Security payments while also double charging the public through the extraction of both present and future rent beared in the implied interest accrued through these unfunded liabilities (keeping government agents paid without disbursing any services). The one known change caused by James Mattis’s departure from his position as head of the Department of Defense is his (temporary) replacement, former 31-year Boeing employee and executive Patrick Shanahan.
The age old adage seems to be inseparable from American neuroses: war never stops.