Posted on 11/23/2016 4:59:23 AM PST by RoosterRedux
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his call to create a safe zone in northern Syria. With American air cover (and, yes, “boots on the ground,” in the form of US special forces), such a zone could serve as a haven for besieged Syrian civilians.
It could also lead to a more strategic, American-led future reorganization of Syria as a loose confederation of separate Sunni, Alawite and Kurdish statelets.
Yes, it’s complicated. Turkey is more interested in fighting against our Kurdish allies than against ISIS or Hezbollah. But we won’t be able to lean on Turkey (or on our Arab allies) to do the right thing in their neighborhood unless we’re present in their neighborhood.
It’s also true that Russia already controls much of Syria’s airspace. Were US planes to intervene, it could lead to actual US-Russia conflict. But Israel has proved it’s possible to avoid the danger zone. Jerusalem has long been hitting Russian-allied Hezbollah targets in Syria since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck agreements with President Vladimir Putin on how to conduct those strikes without baiting the Russian air force.
So there’s no reason Trump couldn’t negotiate similar understandings.
But none of that can happen if we mistake lecturing everyone about the horrors of war for “action.” Or announce in advance that we’re leaving the war against ISIS in Syria for Russia and Iran to deal with.
On the campaign trail, Trump events often played the Rolling Stones classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” off the album “Let It Bleed.” But bloodletting shouldn’t be our policy in Syria, because eventually we’re likely to be drawn into the war anyway — and when it’s costlier to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Assad is fighting a defensive war against a an insurgency of mostly foreign fighters.
Civics are largely hostages to the foreign led,trained, supplied and financed Jihadis of ISIS.
Just follow the Patraeus model and form coalitions with the civilian population to defeat the Jihadi who are terrorizing them.
Not popular with Washington because the United States is working with the Saudis and Qatar to support the foreign insurgency so Obama/Clinton/Kerry foreign policy are part of the problem ,not the solution.
Turkey wants a “safe haven” in North Syria so they can grab and annex a big chunk of Syria for themselves.
The solution - just destroy ISIS
We should just leave.
I mean really? WTF is the end game?
Who do we get when Assad leaves?
Do we fully support the next government with billions and billions of dollars to rebuild, arm them with weaponry to keep the peace and train them?
How do we know the assholes we train won’t one day turn on us or our allies?
Why is Israel in this quicksand?
GTFO of there and save billions of dollars and lives.
End the bloodshed.
There wasn’t a civil war until we and Europe fk’d everything up.
They should stop persecuting Christians.
Just can’t see how civil war in Syria is a threat to our nation.
Creating a "safe zone" will require taking it from Assad's Syria. That will require air power. That will require "boots on the ground" by the tens of thousands and not just a few Special Forces. That will cause conflict with Assad's strongest supporter, Russia. Not worth the U.S. blood and U.S. billions that it would cost.
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