Trump's claim to Syrian oil complicates US mission in Syria

(November 1)President Trump in a recent speech in Chicago said that the US was staying in Syria to control the oil. However, he also said that the US was "keeping the oil" and claimed it was worth $45 million per month.

Trump's position

A recent article reports Trump's position: "Trump has offered varying descriptions of the military's role in eastern Syria. On Oct. 25 he said, "We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil." Three days later, he went further, declaring the oil to be America's."We're keeping the oil — remember that," he said in Chicago. "I've always said that: 'Keep the oil.' We want to keep the oil. Forty-five million dollars a month? Keep the oil."

Trump has twice before claimed he would remove US troops from Syria. He did remove troops from the so-called "safe" buffer zone along the border with Turkey and redeployed some to Iraq without the permission of the Iraqi government that has demanded that they just be considered in transit and move on.

US officials have not said how Trump is going to execute his plans or explained the rationale and legal basis for taking the oil.

Trump himself has suggested he can make a deal with an oil company such as Exxon-Mobil: "US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he is interested in making a deal with Exxon-Mobil or some other energy company to tap Syrian oil reserves in areas not controlled by the Syrian government."

US military goals in Syria have never been that clear and with ISIS mostly defeated no doubt Trump's position set out a new reason for the US to be there. However the mission has now become legally and morally dubious and appears its length is now open-ended.

Doubts about Trump's project

Russia as an ally of Syria was very critical of the Trump position calling it "state banditry". However, even US legal experts said that there was no real legal basis for the US to just seize Syrian oil. Any sale of the oil is problematic as well. No US or other oil companies have shown interest in extracting the Syrian oil no doubt because they realize the ownership of the oil would be disputed.

If any companies do in the end decide to extract the oil under the protection of US military occupation, the occupation could last until the oil runs out.

White House officials have not explained what Trump means by keeping the oil but said privately they had been given no order to take ownership of any Syrian resources including oil wells and stored crude. However Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Thursday he interprets Trump as meaning he will deny Islamic extremists access to the oil.

Details of the new deployment

A recent article describes details of the revised deployment in Syria: "Some 500 US ground troops are currently involved, along with M2A2 Bradley vehicles. Tanks are also reportedly going to be deployed to the area, though it’s not clear any have actually arrived yet.Estimates are that 700 to 900 US troops are going to remain in Syria under this plan, which is a minor decline from the 1,000 troops believed to be present when the US moved out of the north to facilitate the Turkish invasion. "

Previously published in the Digital Journal

Walmart to consider selling its streaming service Vudu

Walmart is considering a sale of its video streaming service Vudu.according to a recent report. It is not known how much the company expects to sell the service for nor whether is has hired bankers to help with the sale.

Walmart bought Vudu in 2010 for $100 million.

A recent article notes: "Word of Walmart’s desire to sell Vudu comes days before Disney and Apple each launch video streaming services meant to compete with Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Vudu offers a different kind of video service, allowing people to rent or buy individual shows or movies, in what is essentially an electronic version of a video rental store. "

Why Walmart may be selling Vudu

The video streaming market is now becoming increasingly crowded with giants such as Apple launching Apple TV Plus and Disney also launching a service next month. NBC and HBO are also offering services next year. The Vudu digital rental and purchase model has also declined in popularity. Now customers want subscription services that stream content. These type of services are becoming the norm.

However Vudu has its virtues and has always been consided one of the better places to stream a movies as the video quality is excellent. Vudu was also a player in UltraViolet a disc-to-digital program that allowed customers to add their collection to the cloud. Vudu now supports Movies Anywhere as well.

Wikipedia describes Movies Anywhere as follows: "Movies Anywhere is a United States-exclusive cloud-based digital locker and over-the-top streaming platform operated by The Walt Disney Company.[3] The service allows users to stream and download purchased films, including digital copies redeemed from codes found in home video releases as well as digital purchases from participating services. The platform provides content from Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., and Walt Disney Studios.[4] The system utilizes an internal platform known as KeyChest, which synchronizes content licenses from digital distribution platforms linked to a central user account. "

Walmart has been investing in Vudu

Walmart has been investing in Vudu and has considerable new original content. Apparently Walmart even considered launching a subscription streaming service last year. However sources report that Walmart now considers it would cost too much to turn Vudu around and it no longer makes financial sense to do so.

A recent statement from Walmart is rather coy about mentioning the issue of selling: “Over the last nine years, we’ve built Vudu into an incredibly strong and growing business with an installed base of more than 100 million devices across America...We’re constantly having and [are] open to conversations with new and existing partners to explore opportunities for continued growth; however, we never share details of those discussions.”

Previously published in the Digital Journal