Russian and US Forces Still Working to Keep Situation in Syria Under Control

Window on Eurasia ^ | Apr 2018 | Golts and Zolotaryev

[GoldenState_Rose]

Despite the panic and hysteria in the media, the Russian and American military commands in Syria continue to cooperate to ensure that any attack by one side against Syrian targets will not lead to the loss of life by soldiers of the other country.

American military personnel who constantly coordinate their actions with the Russians just as the Russians do with the Americans on the territory of Syria have taken all measures so that any American strike will not inflict casualties among Russians.

Only if the Russian forces confirm that there are no Russian soldiers present at a place the Americans intend to attack will the US forces go ahead. And conversely, only if American forces confirm that there are no US soldiers present at a place the Russians intend to attack will Russian forces go ahead.

The level of cooperation between the two militaries is sufficiently developed because both sides understand the importance of doing so given the risks Consequently, here there is no basis for excessive agitation or panic. But if that were violated at some point, it could mean war.

If there were an exchange of strikes, this would already be a war. All normal people do not want a war.

But a real danger could arise if the Americans seek to destroy the anti-aircraft installations in Syria. There is no certainty that in such a massive strike, they would distinguish between Russian anti-aircraft installations and Syrian ones.

The Americans know exactly whose is which and therefore that problem won’t arise because the Russian commanders know that the Americans know and wouldn’t mislead them to create a conflict. If a Russian installation were attacked, Russian forces would respond by attacking the place from which the US attack was launched.

[GoldenState_Rose]

And this is only if there are strikes, which is looking ever less likely. The only time this communication was breached was when U.S. forces inadverently killed a bunch of non-military Russian mercenaries. The presence of whom was kept secret and leaked to the Russian public only after death tolls mounted.

[cowboyusa]

Hillary would have had us all dead.

[Starboard]

With both nations operating in the same region, the chances of a miscalcuation, miscommunication, or misidentification are ever present. I hope the protocols are well established and fail safe. Things could very quickly spiral out of control.

[dynoman]

Except for the time the Russians kept attacking a position of ours and we wiped out their entire group even using strategic bombers. 200 Russian soldiers were killed.

[BeadCounter]

Informative article, thank you.

[Redwood71]

You can’t “control” a civil war. And we, like a lot of the major world players, haven’t been able to stop a thing in the middle east because we are not allowed to play by their rules. So they can do what they want.

rwood