Posted on 03/02/2018 10:23:34 AM PST by mac_truck
Donald Trump ran for president advocating a different kind of foreign policy. But his appointees are taking a Clintonesque approach to Syria: half-hearted military intervention on behalf of minimal security interests, resulting in great risk with little gain. To avoid escalating involvement in someone else’s war, the president should assert control over his foreign policy.
When asked about Syria recently, the president responded that it was all about the Islamic State: “We are there for one reason, to get ISIS and get rid of ISIS and go home. We are not there for any other reason.”
But his officials believe that America’s involvement is about everything other than the Islamic State. In a recent speech Secretary of State Rex Tillerson implausibly defended America’s involvement in yet another permanent war as, among other things, a refusal to “restore Assad and continue his brutal treatment of his own people” and “provide Iran the opportunity to further strengthen its position in Syria.”
Some seventeen hundred American military personnel are expected to deal with what a Pentagon official described as “converging forces with diverging interests.” The resulting conflict is horrendous, but the parties haven’t finished their fight. Yet another UN call for a ceasefire won’t stop the conflict. Nor will the administration policy, which involves broad commitments, minimal interests, multiple combatants, inadequate resources, unrealistic goals, antagonistic powers, conflicting objectives, minimal oversight and nonexistent public support. What could possibly go right?
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Wipe out islam. It’s the only thing that will work.
It is neither a good summary or great “analysis” of conflicts in Syria. It is more just a snapshot of elements, not an analysis.
No; the U.S. should not “declare” victory. It should remain, helping our real friends there, the Kurds, and make sure that everyone - Russia, Assad and Turkey, understand we and the Kurds are and will remain a presence in northern Syria and require our and the Kurds cooperation in any “all Syria” solution.
We neither have to go after attacking Assad, Turkey, or the Russians as if we seek to broaden our scope. We only need to remain and remain strong enough to counter attacks on our friends, the Kurds.
Assad and the Russians will either make a fair and honest deal with the Kurds, in a federated Syria, or a de facto carve out of northern Syria will be achieved by the Kurds, with us standing by them in the absence of any broad agreement.
That is all we have to do. It is neither expensive or a waste. It puts everyone on notice that they cannot unilaterally make any “all Syria” solution, and that in the end we and the Kurds will be part of it, or there will be no such solution.
That is as much “success” as a permanent American presence needs to make.
Mac, Everyone, the NI link opens to page three of the article, for easy reading scroll down to the bottom and select page one.
>
No; the U.S. should not “declare” victory. It should remain, helping our real friends there, the Kurds, and make sure that everyone - Russia, Assad and Turkey, understand we and the Kurds are and will remain a presence in northern Syria and require our and the Kurds cooperation in any “all Syria” solution
>
G-R-E-A-T. ANOTHER ‘war w/o end’; the ‘World Police’, using the lives of our youth. Yep, PERFECT.
Anywhere we SHOULDN’T put our big, fat noses? ‘Cuz, ya’know, we got ‘friends’ ALL other the planet.
1400 yrs. hasn’t ‘fixed’ the region, but the U.S., coming on the 2nd decade....we’ll get there. Someday.
Kurdistan is not America’s problem.
If you want to fight alongside the Kurds, be my guest.
Overthrowing regimes and destabilizing the region, only to leave prematurely and hand the region to al Qaeda and Iran has not been a winning strategy
Five thousand troops in Iraq would have prevented the Middle East melt down and the rise of ISIS
Your transistors are getting fried.
As I said. The effort is minimal and every bit of it worth it.
Defeat can be declared but Victory can only be achieved.
Why would anyone want to stop all the senseless wars and endless killing? The NeoCon nutjobs don’t have to send their kids, just hoodwink you into sending yours.
Gotta keep those dividends coming in from Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman...
Agreed!
Why are we still there?
Please tell that to the family of the next young American who comes back to them in a bag.
Win, or go home.
with no real mandate now that ISIS has been greatly diminished if not defeated.. maybe someone is missing its ISIS tools and now trying to use al Qaeda as allies in the cause
Someone has convinced someone that the best US policy is to to take down the vilified secular Assad, who is seen as “ too close” to Iran and Russia and to let Sunni extremist factions aligned with AlQaeda and competing radicals to tear apart and battle out some kind of new Sunni dominated government for Syria - since it worked so well in Libya (/sarc)
Surely our military presence in Syria can make the Russians withdraw from their naval base and the entire region as we encourage one terrorist faction after another to take up US weapons against Assad under glorious armies with “ Free” and “ “ democratic’ “ in their names and to invite muslim jihadis from all over the former Russian republics to join in tearing apart Syria and what remains of the non- Israeli middle east ... flooding Europe with war weary angry muslim “ migrants”
Oh and our “ friends” the Kurds - if you like your Kurdistan you can keep your Kurdistan.... ,after you help us to kill Assad, promise to fight As our proxies vs Iran, and destroy Syria of course
“Please tell that to the family of the next young American who comes back to them in a bag.”
In the case of our special forces ops with the Kurds in northern Syria, how man has that been?
Yours is the most accurate overview I’ve seen. The PTB want the oilfields. The ceasefire for Eastern Ghouta is a joke.
The rebels kill the civilians trying to leave. The Kurds are realizing they got suckered by the US, and begging the legitimate government of Syria to save their butts in Afrin.
Russia, and Iran are evil. Can do no wrong Israel is letting Genie Energy (Cheney, Rothschild, and Rumsfield) drill for oil in occupied Golan, which is a part of Syria.
I wish Trump would do as he said during the Campaign, and get out of Syria. Oh, and let me not forget the latest fake chlorine gas crap I see our government throwing out.
One is too many.
He said it again the other day too, it falls on deaf ears.
Much like liquid mercury, ISIS can be smashed to pieces but always finds a way to reconstitute itself.
Their latest manifestation is in Kirkuk, but I haven't heard a peep about it from the US led coalition.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.