Protecting Syrian oil that accounts for just 0.2 percent of world reserves is not the reason United States troops are staying in Syria, argues retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson in a new interview at MSNBC. Instead, says Wilkerson, who was chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration, the offered oil protection rationale is a “manufactured reason.”

“The real reason the Pentagon talked the president into not continuing with his withdrawal and leaving his US forces there is they are positioned to try and keep Iran from gaining any real foothold, vis-à-vis Israel in particular, in Syria and they’re also positioned to keep [Syria President] Assad honest with regard to his deal for autonomy for the Kurds whom we have sort of abandoned.”

Watch here Wilkerson’s complete interview in which he also discusses the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and how the region around Syria “is getting ready to explode again” instead of becoming peaceful:

Wilkerson is an Academic Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.