CODEPINK condemns President Obama’s decision to deploy 250 additional troops to Syria. This represents the first major expansion of U.S. ground troops in a multilateral regional war. Rather than further engaging the U.S. military in another country’s civil war, President Obama should use his last months in office to fulfill his campaign promises to end U.S. military interventions in the Middle East.
For decades, the United States government has perpetuated endless conflicts in the Middle East, exacerbated civil wars and deepened sectarian divides. The current U.S. military intervention in Syria is no exception. Despite billions of tax dollars spent on airstrikes, arming rebel forces, and sharing surveillance intelligence, U.S. military endeavors have neither alleviated the suffering in Syria, brought the civil war to an end, nor improved American national security.
The American people are now expected to foot an astounding $375 million bill just to train the 250 Special Forces troops headed to Syria. The U.S. government should spend fewer resources on ground forces, which President Obama previously said he would never deploy to Syria, and more on supporting peace talks and providing humanitarian assistance to the millions of Syrian people who are besieged, internally displaced, or refugees in other countries.
CODEPINK supports our brothers and sisters in Syria who are suffering, either under the Islamic State or bloody regime of Assad, at the receiving end of U.S. bombs, or any other violence engulfing the country. We call for a negotiated end to the Syrian civil war and all U.S. troops and military contractors out of Syria.
