Demanding more military deployment abroad, 75-year-old Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats urged the U.S. military to continue its present levels of deployment, despite announcements by 72-year-old President Donald Trump to begin reducing deployments in Syria and Afghanistan. Coats’ intel assessment directly contradicts the president, taking the Military Industrial Complex [MIC] position that more military deployments overseas helps U.S. national security. When Trump announced Dec. 19, 2018 a withdrawal of 2,000 U.S. advisers, the MIC went wild, calling Trump reckless and irresponsible. But with the Afghan War 18-years-old and the U.S. funneling arms-and-cash in a losing cause of Syrian rebels seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it’s no wonder Trump had reason to pause. Coats’ report today contradicts Trump’s withdrawal plans.
Coats’ intel report cites the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] and al-Qaeada, the terror group formed by Osama bin Laden, as an ongoing threat to U.S. national security. Speculating about a resurgence from both groups contradicts Trump’s message that ISIS is all but defeated in Iraq and Syria. While Coats admits that ISIS and al-Qaeda are reduced to a few villages in Iraq and Syria, he also mentions the unknown prospects of resurgence. “ISIS still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria, and it maintains eight branches, more than a dozen networks and thousands of dispersed supporters around the world, despite significant leadership and territorial losses,” Coats’ said. Coats at least calls the terror group ISIS, not ISIL, as former President Barack Obama liked to call it. But Coats offers zero proof of ISIS reconstituting itself despite occasional violence in the Mideast.
Trump’s Dec. 19, 2018 plan to start a slow but methodical withdrawal rocked the Pentagon, prompting former Defense Secretary James Mattis to retire two months early. Media reports said Mattis resigned out of protest to Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. advisers in Syria. Mattis and Special State Department Syrian Envoy Brett McGurk were slated to retire, only moving up the date by a few months. Yet if you listen to media, they’d have you believe Trump’s decision prompted their early retirements. Saying ISIS has been degraded to “a couple of little villages left,” in Iraq and Syria, Coats admits that there’s far less urgency for U.S. advisers in Iraq and Syria. Trump wanted to do what’s right for U.S. service personnel in ordering a methodical withdrawal. Trump expressed no desire to abandon the Kurds or increase the chances that ISIS or al-Qaeda would reconstitute itself in Iraq and Syria.
Coats’ intel report makes no mention of the substantial progress on reducing the threat from ISIS and al-Qaeda, consistent with a methodical U.S. draw down, something wanted by the commander-in-chef. Anti-Trump media promptly sided with Coats, suggesting that Trump’s actions to begin methodically withdrawing U.S. forces endangered U.S. allies and return to terrorism. Exaggerating the threat from ISIS and al-Qaeda, Coats hoped to stir the pot with pro-Pentagon hawks looking for new military adventures around the globe. Coasts’ report was music to the ears of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other war hawks looking to flex American muscle. Coats disputed Trump’s assessment of Iran that it was still working on a nuclear weapon. Criticizing Trump’s May 8, 2018 withdrawal of Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal, citing evidence that Iran was out of compliance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose intel the U.S. relies upon, begged Obama not to give Iran billions of dollars to engage in a unenforceable nuke deal. Once Obama inked the deal July 14, 2015, Iran took the $15 billion in cash and $150 billion in sanctions relief to fund proxy wars in Yemen and Syria. Trump cancelled Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal citing Iran’s overly aggressive behavior, not to mention the deal could not be verified. Coats insists U.S. intel agencies see Iran in compliance with the Nuke Deal, requiring Iran to suspend all weapons grade uranium enrichment activities. “At the moment technically they are in compliance,” with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPA],” Coats report insisted. Yet Iran has never allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] inspectors to enter sensitive military nuke sites.
When it comes to North Korea, Coats’ report insists that North Korea won’t give up all its nukes, disparaging Trump’s summitry with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Coats Before Trump’s first North Korean summit June 12, 2018, Kim threatened the U.S. with nuclear war. After the summit, the U.S., South and North Korea have worked on improving relations. Yet Coats’ only comment in his so-called neutral intel assessment is that Kim will never give up his nuclear weapons. Coats warned of more interference in future U.S. elections. “Foreign actors will view the 2020 election as an opportunity to advance their interests,” Coats said. There’s hasn’t been a recent U.S. election where foreign “actors” didn’t try to advance their agenda. When you weigh the totality of Coats’ intel report, it essentially contradicts Trump on Russian meddling, Syria, North Korea, Iran and everything else.
