U.S. president outsmarts Putin -- leaves him with Syria headaches as U.S. withdraws... So much for the critics who claimed that President Trump's troop withdrawal from the portion of the Syria-Turkey border where Syrian Kurds had been living under temporary U.S. protection was a gift to ISIS... Despite the Kurds' disappointment with President Trump's withdrawal decision and the resulting Turkish operation that pushed Kurds away from territory they had controlled on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, "Kurdish intelligence officials in both Syria and Iraq helped locate the target of the raid," according to a New York Times report, citing a senior American official. The U.S.-Kurd alliance is obviously not irretrievably broken when common interests such as the destruction of ISIS are concerned. President Trump's critics also complained that his troop withdrawal from northeast Syria was a gift to Russia....
...according to Zev Chafets, a prolific writer who was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine... wrote that Russia will, by necessity, have to take on more responsibility for fighting ISIS and other jihadists as well as reconstructing Syria... Russia will also have other headaches. Having saved the Assad regime from near collapse and claiming that it is now the main sheriff in Syria, Russia will have the burden of trying to coax Assad towards building a durable post-war government that may include some opposition elements. Russia will also be obliged to help with Syria's reconstruction in order to avoid a breakdown of any restored order. "As the big power in charge, Russia...will be expected to help its Syrian client rebuild the damage from the civil war," Mr. Chafets noted. "Physical reconstruction alone is expected to cost $400-500 billion. This is a bill Trump had no intention of paying -- and one more reason he was glad to hand northern Syria to Putin. Russia cannot afford a project of this magnitude." ...
So long as the U.S. controls the oil fields with the help of the Kurds, who may gain some benefit from them financially, the U.S. -- not Russia -- will control a vital source of revenue that could eventually be used to help pay for Syria's reconstruction... Russia will also have to manage the relationship it forged with the Iranian regime as the two countries fought on the same side to prop up Assad. Russia must do so while having developed a relationship with Israel for trade reasons as well as because of the significant number of Russians now living in Israel. Russia's dual relationships with two players in Syria who are arch enemies of each other puts Russia into a difficult position. As Mr. Chafets observed, Russia has to contend with "the ongoing Israel-Iran war, which is being fought largely in Syrian territory."
Quagmire. Thanks LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget.