America's Missing Plan in the Middle East

Matthew RJ Brodsky joins David Shuster on i24News "Stateside" to discuss the significance of the battles in the border region near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria and what it means for the Shi'a crescent Iran has hoped to complete from Tehran to the Mediterranean. Brodsky asserts that the U.S. has not taken into account the fact that Iran has benefited throughout the region from the collapse of ISIS. He believes that President Trump has wanted to do far more in the Middle East with less resources and it will likely prove unsustainable. He sees no evidence that that the U.S. will stand by its Kurdish allies in Syria anymore than it did in Iraq. The recent news reports involving the existence of an Iranian base just south of Damascus is a worrying development and the expected joint U.S.-Russia statement on Syria's future will likely indicate the direction the U.S. is heading as it begins entering the "now what?" phase after smashing ISIS.