The big news of the past few days is that the U.S. will be sending Special Forces troops (U.S. Army contingent in U.S. Special Operations Command) to Syria to work with rebels there who are anti-ISIS, anti-Al-Nusra, anti-Assad. What does this activity represent?
I do not believe it represents an intent to escalate U.S. activity in the area. We will continue to provide air strikes, limited ammunition to some allies, some intelligence support and other logistic support. I also do not believe that it represents a caving-in to the "we have to do something/we have to do more" crowd. In fact, I am not really sure that this action has any immediate impact on Assad, Al-Nusra, or ISIS.
For my two cents, it is a means of sending a message to the Russians. By embedding U.S. Special Forces with some anti-Assad rebels, we make it difficult for the Russians to continue air strikes and support for Syrian Government ground attacks. While the Russians are willing to negotiate (as long as Assad remains in power (for now) and Iran is involved) they had not backed down from their activities which were designed to carve out a coastal zone of control for the Assad government. Now the Russians have to slow down and determine if the "terrorists" they are attacking on behalf of the Syrian government are "good terrorists" or "bad terrorists". After all, according to the Russians all Syrian rebels are terrorists and all terrorists are bad terrorists. Laissez les bon temps rouler
I do not believe it represents an intent to escalate U.S. activity in the area. We will continue to provide air strikes, limited ammunition to some allies, some intelligence support and other logistic support. I also do not believe that it represents a caving-in to the "we have to do something/we have to do more" crowd. In fact, I am not really sure that this action has any immediate impact on Assad, Al-Nusra, or ISIS.
For my two cents, it is a means of sending a message to the Russians. By embedding U.S. Special Forces with some anti-Assad rebels, we make it difficult for the Russians to continue air strikes and support for Syrian Government ground attacks. While the Russians are willing to negotiate (as long as Assad remains in power (for now) and Iran is involved) they had not backed down from their activities which were designed to carve out a coastal zone of control for the Assad government. Now the Russians have to slow down and determine if the "terrorists" they are attacking on behalf of the Syrian government are "good terrorists" or "bad terrorists". After all, according to the Russians all Syrian rebels are terrorists and all terrorists are bad terrorists. Laissez les bon temps rouler
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