Our government admits to lying, and it makes you wonder what can you trust about anything they tell us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2024\/12\/23\/pentagon-admits-its-been-lying-about-the-number-of-troops-in-both-iraq-and-syria\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n By Dave DeCamp <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pentagon said on Monday <\/a>that the US has more troops deployed in Iraq than it has been disclosing, an admission that comes after it revealed there are significantly more US troops in Syria than the US has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, the Pentagon has said there are 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq. Last week, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder revealed the US was lying about the number of troops in Syria<\/a>, saying the real number is 2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement meant to clarify the situation that was released on Monday<\/a>, Ryder also said there were more than 2,500 US troops in Iraq but refused to say how many. \u201cHowever, due to operations security and diplomatic considerations, we do not have any more specifics to provide,\u201d Ryder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryder\u2019s statement revealed that the number of US troops in Syria has been higher than publicly disclosed since 2020. \u201cIn addition to the approximately 900 baseline troops, there are also approximately 1,100 US military personnel in Syria that deploy for shorter durations as temporary enablers in support of force protection, transportation, maintenance, or other emerging operational requirements,\u201d Ryder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe numbers of these additional temporary forces have fluctuated over the past several years based on mission needs but in general have increased over time as the threat has increased to baseline forces,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lying about the actual number of US troops in Syria goes back to at least the Trump administration. In 2020, James Jeffrey, the outgoing US envoy for Syria at the time, admitted his team was<\/a> \u201calways playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there.\u201d In 2019, after reversing an order to withdraw all troops from Syria, Trump agreed to keep 200 in the country. But Jeffrey said there was \u201ca lot more\u201d than that deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his statement on Monday, Ryder also said that \u201csome additional temporary enablers\u201d had been deployed alongside the 2,500 US troops in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources told CNN<\/em> that the US had been lying about the number of US troops in Syria because it didn\u2019t want to anger neighboring countries, particularly Iraq, where the presence of US troops is strongly opposed by many political factions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sources said the US was worried if Iraqi officials found out the US had more troops in Syria than it was disclosing, officials would fear the same is happening in Iraq. Ryder\u2019s statement that there are more than 2,500 US troops in Iraq will likely cause trouble for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who has been under significant pressure to get the US to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe US has said it has 2,500 troops in Iraq, but the Pentagon says the actual number is higher <\/h5>\n\n\n\n