We get to watch this time, instead of bleed and pay.
Posted on 08/22/2019 10:29:40 AM PDT by BeauBo
Syrian army advances in northwest Syria are putting Turkish troops in the firing line and threaten Ankara's hopes of preventing a new wave of refugees on its southern border.
The offensive around Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, has already forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee towards Turkey.
It has also cut off a Turkish military post deep inside Syria as the deal to limit fighting in the region, which the Turkish troops were supposed to be monitoring, collapses.
The breakdown of that deal would be a significant blow to President Tayyip Erdogan, who has steered Turkey closer to Russia in recent years but appears unable to rein back Moscow's support for the Syrian army offensive.
Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed in 2017 to set up four "de-escalation zones" to stem fighting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels, but the Syrian army has retaken three of those areas and is now advancing in the fourth.
It has entered the town of Khan Sheikhoun, effectively cutting off Turkish troops at a military post near the town of Morek, 70 km (45 miles) inside Syria. A Turkish convoy sent to resupply the Morek post was halted on Monday by an air strike.
"The situation there is of critical sensitivity," Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Turkey, which supports some Syrian rebel factions, has troops deployed at 12 military observation posts around the Idlib region under the 2017 deal with Moscow and Tehran, which back Assad's government.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtvbam.com ...
Turkey had a tactical deal with the Assad Regime/Russians/Iranians to administer the Northern parts of Syria, while the Assad Regime fought to regain control of rebel held areas elsewhere.
Well that battle is pretty well won, and now the Regime and the Russians are up to the border of the Turkish held areas.
Turkey wants to keep that territory, and they want to continue to train and equip Sunni islamist extremists there. Effectively, Turkey has allowed al Queda (calling itself al Nusra), to take control of Idlib Province in Syria, close to the Heartland of Assad's Alawite minority, and the Russians strategic airbase and sea port.
It looks like the tactical truce is over (or about to end) and the next phase will be the Regime/Russians/Iranians pushing out al Queda and the Turks.
More bad guys killing bad guys...works for me.
Not our circus, not our monkeys.
May not be our circus or our monkeys but its our money.
As this next phase of the Syrian war progresses, the Regime and its allies will likely eventually recapture the al Queda (al Nusra) controlled areas of Idlib. It will likely be a hard slog for a while.
That would then bring them to the Kurdish area of Afrin, which has also been occupied by Turkey, and used as a dumping ground for Sunni jihadis from elsewhere in Syria.
That phase would likely engage the Kurdish SDF (our allies) in pushing out Turkish occupiers (also our putative allies), and leave the bulk of the hyper-violent jihadis no where to go, except Turkey itself.
But for now, the big news is that President Erdogan’s investment in cultivating Russia, by turning his back on NATO to buy the S-400 Air Defense System, seems to have been a strategic failure. Putin may have just played him for temporary tactical advantage in Syria, and to generally disrupt NATO.
We get to watch this time, instead of bleed and pay.
This was never a civil war. It was always a war that could be ended in an afternoon, if and when the Turks, Qataris, and Obama State Department so decided.
What I noticed from the beginning was that journalists could not enter territories held by the Syrian “rebels”, it was too dangerous. Nor could international inspectors of any kind. And that refugees could return home when neighborhoods had been reclaimed by Assad’s forces.
This doesn’t make Assad a good guy, there were lots of good reasons to take him down and take him out. But not if your replacements are Al Qaeda and ISIS.
It will all be winning bigley if it results in scrapping NATO and forming a new alliance with people who are actually on our side.
The U.S. got itself a huge stinking diaper to wear when it kept Turkey as an ally after the invasion of Cyprus. It would be nice to clean up that diaper and treat the diaper rash.
Syrian rebels = Al Qaeda
Thanks Neocons...
Wow, what a strange world where I find myself rooting for Assad. And by “rebels” I think they mean ISIS.
Yes, Assad’s Syria seems to be better than any of the alternatives. Under Assad, at least Syria was mostly at peace, and extremists of all stripes were mostly suppressed.
So essentially they killed half a million Syrians for no particular purpose.
“there were lots of good reasons to take him (Assad) down and take him out. But not if your replacements are Al Qaeda and ISIS.”
A cure that is worse than the disease.
Turkey is not our friend.
FU Obama,Clinton and dead McCain for the sh*t that is Syria.
I don't understand a mission for NATO any more - it's a liability. Trump should pull resources from NATO as a bargaining chip for something substantial. And yeah, ally with countries who support us.
Let them fight and get all of our troops out so we don’t get dragged in.
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