The base in Jordan, which is called\u00a0Tower 22, is positioned just six miles from the Syrian border,<\/strong>\u00a0and close to the Al-Tanf base where US servicemembers are based inside Syria.\u00a0After a Jan. 28 drone attack on Tower 22 killed three soldiers and wounded dozens more, US Central Command\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0the facility as a “logistics support base” housing some 350 Army and Air Force personnel.<\/p>\n However, an Air Force airman who was recently stationed at Tower 22 tells\u00a0The Intercept\u00a0<\/em>there’s much more to the base than managing supplies:<\/p>\n \u201cTo call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit.\u00a0<\/strong>The main purpose of Tower 22 is to operate drones to spy on insurgents in Iraq and Syria, for targeting purposes.\u00a0The main objective I witnessed was taking out targets.<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to the airman, intelligence collected in Tower 22’s drone operations is used by USAF units at other bases, including Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, to carry out airstrikes in the region.<\/p>\n CENTCOM says the base is used to give “support to the coalition for the lasting defeat of ISIS<\/a>.”\u00a0The claimed ISIS mission is central to the legal justification for the continued US military presence in Syria,<\/strong>\u00a0which\u00a0relies<\/a>\u00a0on an expansive interpretation of Congress’s 2001 authorization to use military force (AUMF) against terrorists and others who facilitated the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n However, that’s all a pretense:\u00a0The principal purpose of US operations in Iraq and Syria is to limit Iranian influence in the region<\/strong>, to include countering Iranian-allied militant groups, while also weakening the Syrian government by depriving it of access to its own oil fields.<\/p>\n “Whatever they\u2019re doing there, there\u2019s very little evidence that it\u2019s counter-ISIS,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0State Department veteran and International Crisis Group senior adviser\u00a0Brian Finucane<\/a>\u00a0tells\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cThe counter-ISIS mission is the only legal basis there is for the U.S. to be there.\u00a0There\u2019s no legal basis to have U.S. troops in Syria to be countering Iran<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n In December, the Senate\u00a0overwhelmingly rejected<\/a>\u00a0a bill proposed by Sen. Rand Paul that would have asserted that the 2001 AUMF does not apply to Syria. Said Paul at the time:<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to me, though\u00a0our 900 troops have no viable mission in Syria, that they\u2019re sitting ducks.<\/strong>\u00a0They\u2019re a tripwire to a larger war, and without a clear-cut mission, I don\u2019t think they can adequately defend themselves, yet they remain in Syria.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n While Tower 22 is just across the border from Syria, Paul’s words proved all too prescient for those killed and wounded at the base on Jan. 28. In an earlier\u00a0Intercept<\/em><\/a>\u00a0report, an airman previously stationed at the base — perhaps the same one quoted in the latest story — said, “The air defenses were minimal, if any…We had a radar system called TPS-75 that was broken 80 percent of the time<\/strong>\u00a0I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n The sitting ducks at Tower 22 paid a steep price for their decision to enlist, and for their government’s unrelenting support of Israel, to include the ongoing, massively destructive campaign in Gaza. When claiming responsibility for the attack on Tower 22, a senior official in a coalition of Iraqi militias said,\u00a0\u201cAs we said before, if the U.S. keeps supporting Israel, there will [be] escalations. All the U.S. interests in the region are legitimate targets,<\/strong>\u00a0and we don\u2019t care about U.S. threats to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/AFP2997733799442984516223785422055357900226-us-conflict-jordan-iran-palestinians-iraq-israel-1.jpg?itok=w3ArHiET\")
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