US Troops Fighting in Syria

The Hot Zone ^ | 12/2/24 | Chuck Holton

[silverleaf]

The arab world recognizes Assad as the President of Syria.
Time we did the same.
He’s been elected numerous times and is popular with secular and moderate Syrians of all religions. His secret security forces are no more brutal than those of most of the regional states…and those of Ukraine. He could probably be persuaded to reconcile with Kurdish autonomy if they accept being part of Syria.
For some reason Israel seems to think its best security interest is to keep Syria in chaos and “civil war.” Which is actually a war between having a secular govt, or going islamist. Iran has used Syria for decades as a thorn in the side of arab unity and a logistics base for ops vs Lebanon and Israel.

[ETCM]

So the U.S. is hitting Iranian proxies?

Yes. In the past, this Iran proxy has attacked us.

[mass55th]

Obama sent U.S. Forces there in 2015, and sent more the following year. President Trump had ordered troop reductions from Syria, but was lied to about the number of troops remaining there:

Retiring diplomat says defense officials misled Trump on troop count in Syria

[katana]

Try explaining the history and politics of the Middle East to someone who cannot locate their own State on a map. Or to a member of Congress.

But I repeat myself.

[SkyDancer]

Why???

[DesertRhino]

On which side? With our rebels we created and supplied, or against them?

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Syria was perfectly fine under Alawite control. Then came Obama and his Arab spring.

[Red6]

We are trying to get rid of Assad. Not sure what you meant.

When the uprising started, it was originally led by some moderates (a Syrian Colonel was their leader) who we backed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Syrian_Army#:~:text=The%20Free%20Syrian%20Army%20(FSA,from%20the%20Syrian%20Armed%20Forces.

As the war raged on and they started running out of people, some very shady (radical Muslim types) began joining the fight and were being backed by us, as part of the Free Syrian Army (we tried hard to suppress this in the msm).

The Turks of course want a piece of the pie (Syria) as well, and the Kurd's have wanted a Kurdistan for the longest time (ain't happening, the Turks will never allow such). But we sort of protect the Kurd's to a degree (i.e. the Turks can't go all out after them).

You have this weird mix of groups that aren't entirely on the same sheet of music fighting against Assad.

Syria was a formal Russian ally since the 1970s. Assad's father was installed by the Soviets, like we installed Mr. Z in Ukraine. Russia and before that the Soviet Union has naval and air bases there for over 50 years now. We have been expanding our influence in the Middle East and North Africa for about 2 decades now (more bases in the region, vastly expanded intel operations, invading or sponsoring coups in Libya, Syria, Iraq), with WMD being the excuse for our intervention in Syria 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intervention_in_the_Syrian_civil_war

Win some, lose some... We have gained ground in Syria of late, but lost ground or influence in Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Sudan.

Nigeria: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czkk7g1vj31o

Niger: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-niger-base-russian-military-personnel-niamey-africa-russia/ (poking us in the eye as they boot us)

Sudan: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/amid-brutal-civil-war-sudans-vp-defends-refusal-to-participate-in-u-s-led-peace-talks

Chad: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-19/chad-asks-us-troops-to-cease-operations-at-strategic-army-base and https://www.reuters.com/world/some-us-troops-set-depart-chad-least-temporarily-2024-04-25/

All of these nations are in a struggle over who they are aligned with, the US or Russia. All are “significant” oil producing nations or have a key strategic value in terms of location etc: https://spendmenot.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/oil-production-by-country-1-1.png

The era of the proxy conflict/war is back.

We are in a global struggle over who has control of the worlds energy reserves at this point. Russia has about 1/3 control, and we control about 2/3rds and we're trying to expand that, i.e. Iraq (2003), Syria (2014), Libya (2011), Venezuela (2020 - continuous).