The Trump administration has been preparing for its Syria withdrawal by conducting $22.7 billion in U.S. arms sales with 14 Middle East nations in 2018. After reports from the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that some American forces had already withdrawn from the Rmeilan military airbase in the most eastern sector, a U.S. spokesperson confirmed: "This is the first such pullout of American forces since the U.S. president's announcement" of a troop withdrawal in mid-December. Although Politico's Morning Consult poll found that 49 percent of Americans support the withdrawal of troops from Syria versus 33 percent who are opposed, the New York Times reported that its Pentagon and State Department sources claimed that Trump is abandoning Syria's Kurds and "ceding a strategically vital country to Russia and Iran." But a closer analysis of the polling found that 2016 voters for Republican Donald...(Read Full Post)