On September 21, president Biden told the UN that Unites States, for the first time in three decades, is not at war. But previously, he had approved coups against Iranian militias in eastern Syria in February and in June, and only a day before his speech he had ordered an airstrike against a suspected terrorist target in northwest Syria. Moreover, there is no serious discussion in the Biden administration about withdrawing the 900 Americans soldiers from eastern Syria.
Meanwhile, a debate has started in the Democratic Party about the American mission in Syria. A prominent member of the party left wing, Jamal Bowman, proposed an amendment to the Defence Department budget to approve the continuing military presence, because seven years after the American military began fighting in Syria, Congress has still not voted to approve the military intervention.
But Bowman's efforts failed on September 23, as 141 House of Representatives members approved his amendment and 286 rejected it. Those who rejected the proposals insisted that the US cannot abandon the Kurds in Syria and they emphasized the existing ISIS threat.
This rejection has three major implications:
the vote means that Biden administration has time to think about its Syria projects, without an immediate deadline from the Congress, as after Afghanistan, it is not in a hurry to leave Syria;
among 141 who supported the amendment were 21 Republicans, supporters of ex-president Trump, who intended to withdraw from Syria. Thus, the extreme right and the left in American politics agree about Syria;
the most important implication from the vote is inside the DP itself: Bowman's proposal won approval from 120 DP representatives and only 98 voted against it. So, it appears that DP support for the Syria military mission is not strong;
This Syria vote, along with the debate inside the DP about Biden's foreign policy on Palestine, show the left wing of the party more and more critical of Biden and DP leadership on foreign policy issues. and the DP leaders need the support of the left wing to succeed in 2022 congressional elections and the 2024 presidential campaign.
Foreign policy is normally not an important issue in American elections, but if disagreements inside the DP cause 3 or 4 percent of Democratic voters to abstain from the ballot, the Republicans will win the elections. The left wing knows this and Bowman will try again next year to put an end to the American military presence in Syria.