Written by Alex Gorka; Originally appeared at strategic-culture.org
This is a classic example of flip-flop policy. In November, the US promised Turkey to stop arming Kurdish militias in Syria after the Islamic State was routed. Brett McGurk, the US Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat Islamic State, explained that after the urban fighting in Raqqa was over “adjustments in the level of military support” would be made. “We had to give some equipment – and it’s limited, extremely limited – all of which was very transparent to our NATO ally, Turkey,” he said during a special briefing on December 21. In June, the US told Turkey it would take back weapons supplied to the Kurdish the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in northern Syria after the defeat of Islamic State.
But sophisticated weapons will continue to be sent to Syria in 2018, including thousands of anti-tank rocket launchers, heat seeking missiles and rocket launchers. The list of weaponry and equipment was prepared by US Department of Defense as part of the 2018 defense budget and signed by Trump of Dec. 12. It includes more than 300 non-tactical vehicles, 60 nonstandard vehicles, and 30 earth-moving vehicles to assist with the construction of outposts or operations staging areas. The US defense spending bill for 2018 (“Justification for FY 2018 Overseas Contingency Operations / Counter-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Train and Equip Fund”) includes providing weapons worth $393 million to US partners in Syria. Overall, $500 million, roughly $70 million more than last year, are to be spent on Syria Train and Equip requirements. The partners are the Kurds-dominated Syria Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG – the group that is a major concern of Turkey – is the backbone of this force.
The budget does not refer to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but instead says “Vetted Syrian Opposition”. According to the budget list, there are 25,000 opposition forces supported as a part of the train and equip program in Syria. That number is planned to be increased to 30,000 in 2018. The arming of Kurdish militants with anti-tank rockets is a sensitive topic because of Turkey’s reliance on its armored Leopard tanks in northern Syria.
Talal Sillo, a former high-ranking commander and spokesperson of the US-backed SDF, who defected from the group last month to go to Turkey, divulged details of the US arming the Kurdish group.
The list does not detail which vetted Syrian groups will receive certain pieces of equipment. In northern Syria, there is the SDF, including the YPG, and the Syria Arab Coalition — a group of Arab fighters incorporated into the SDF. The Maghawir al-Thawra and Shohada al-Quartayn groups are operating in the southeastern part of Syria. They are being trained by US and British instructors at the al-Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq.
Besides the SDF and the groups trained at al-Tanf, the US is in the process of creating the New Syria Army to fight the Syrian government forces. The training is taking place at the Syrian Hasakah refugee camp located 70 kilometers from the border of Turkey and 50 kilometers from the border of Iraq.
Around 40 Syria opposition groups on Dec. 25 rejected to attend the planned Sochi conference on Syria scheduled to take place in January. They said Moscow, which organizes the conference, was seeking to bypass the UN-based Geneva peace process, despite the fact that UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said that Russia’s plan to convene the congress should be assessed by its ability to contribute to and support the UN-led Geneva talks on ending the war in Syria. If fighting starts, these groups are likely to join the formations created by the US.
So, the United States not only maintains its illegal military presence in Syria and creates new forces to fight against the Syrian government, it appears to be preparing for a new war to follow the Islamic State’s defeat. The continuation of arming and training Kurdish militias will hardly improve Washington’s relations with Ankara, while saying one thing and doing another undermines the credibility of the United States as a partner.
Don’t tell me that USA created ISIS to invade Syria and then want to attack the syrian government with mercenairies of the region. XD.
If you tell me that, I will not believe you. XD.
Maybe instead of reacting, Russia and Syria must act. And acting means prevent what is very obvious.
Russia, Syria, and Iran (and Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.)
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That’s why I never understood why people were scared about SAA downing US aircrafts. USA is seeking for mercenaries to do the dirty job and wnat a justification to attack the syrian government.
Downing USA planes is defending yourself. So, it’s not enough to attack you.
But, people were very afraid of the void.
” But people were very afraid of the void ” . Maybe your best .
I hate the Russian attitude of not providing advanced anti-aircraft defense systems to Syria.
Israel air attacks are more minor, I think.
Whatever new army the US creates will be defeated same as ISIS. Using proxies will get them nowhere & I doubt the SDF will take on Assad for the US. They will consolidate what they already have.
That is right. Satanic U$ and its barbaric jihadist should be defeated.
Foolish and ill advised, per usual. Tiny minds in the grip of a single idea.
But it does work very well for those elites that do not care about America, the American people, the rule of law (including international), equality, democracy, common sense, improving economy, and all those things in general that make life worth living.
Until it doesn’t. Short term thinkers suffering from megalomania.
Many say this may be a continuation of anti-Ayran policy. 30 thousand militants are reportedly being trained/armed in Hasaka province and may easily be used to attack both the western side of Euphrates as well as the PMU in Iraq under the pretense of “fighting Ayranian influence”. Iraqi Krds would easily be mobilized to this cause. Wasn’t a PMU leader just assassinated this last week?
There yet may be a Krdstan, stretching from western shores of Euphrates to Ayran’s border; a perfect precursor to a possible “Persian Spring”.
“There yet may be a Krdstan” I don’t think you get it.
Iran has won every war it has been involved in (The Shia crescent is here to stay), Russia won the war in Syria and is increasingly intertwining its economy with Turkey. While the Turks have even for the first time in history improved its ties with Iran over the Kurdistan predicament.
The question you should be asking yourself is: “when and how large will the massacre of PKK/PYD/YPG terrorists be?”
not very large.
The frog eater intervened and will save Kurdistan if US and Israel fail.
1941 Anglo-Soviet invasion and occupation of Iran took 2-3 weeks.
Ill be blunt with you Richard, shut the fuck up. No-one cares about your one century ago battle. If you want to be constructive tell me about Irans current fire power, their allies, their battle readiness. Saudi Arabia is trembling by the mere thought of an Iranian offensive
You mentioned history and used the word “ever” in your OP. You are too rude to be conversed with however. Have a nice day.
You are right I was, rude. I apologise.
Thanks! I support SAA, Russia and Iran’s aim’s in Syria. I was just making an academic point.
That was 1941 .
The Iraqi one was in 1980.
The Iraqi one – supported by the Saudis and the US – took 7 years and still failed.
True enough. The OP used the word “ever”. He said Iran had never lost a war. I disagreed.
I don’t think that 1941 event counted as a ‘war’, did it? More like a regime change and bloodless coup? The first ‘airing’ of what would later become the Shah n Shah.
UK and USSR were in a Life/Death struggle at the time. I’d say Iran judged correctly that resisting would be met with the harshest consequences. Stalin and Churchill were both bloody bastages and slaughtering millions would not have been out of character. Churchill starved millions of Bengalis to death a few months later because there was a CHANCE that Japanese troops might take eastern India and seize food stocks there. So he simply ceased shipments of food to the region.
Actually I was reading on the subject and found out that there was some fighting in the south (some naval action) while the Soviets mounted a couple of air raids on Teheran and invaded from the north. Iran was needed, and would develop under the US, as a conduit of supply into Russia.
You’re correct to some extent about the famine in Bengal (although a number of factors enter into it) Churchill was probably more focused on saving India from Japanese invasion (Imphal/Kohima 1944) than he was on feeding the (anti imperial) Bengalis.
The Iran ‘event’ was written-off to the threat of resident Germans capturing the oil resources at Abadan.
Indeed you have read up on the events! I’ll agree that Churchill’s intent was NOT to deliberately starve millions to death. He just did not care one way or the other. Iran’s Reza Shah Pahlavi (d. 1944) and Iraq’s Rashid Ali al Gaylani were both Nazi sympathizers. Both were deposed by the WW2 Allies to protect oil resources.
That, of course is history, but we can understand the motives of current actors by remembering it.
By anti – Aryan policy , do you mean anti- Iranian , or anti – Kurd ?
Expels USA before it’s to late.
Indeed!
Jewmerica has been paying for, arming, training and politically supporting the “vetted opposition” terrorists continuously from before the war started to the present time. It’s simply part of a larger fabricated Hegelian Jew world order conquest and hegemony program that criminally targets victim states, with Syria being one, and Iran, China, Russia and many others being on the receiving end of the Jew crime syndicate’s criminal enterprise.
Assad should just plainly ask the Kurds … War or peace . War gets destroyed completely Peace be part of unified Syria.
Forget about the US , they are an illegal entity The US plan simply will never materialize . No one sane will ever allow it even if it fights to the last man . Assad has more than enough very strong allies to do so once ISIS is gone
Indeed.
This is part of the 2018 defense budget, but the the money is not yet spent. Hopefully there will great resistance in congress over any appropriations towards Syria. Many should argue “ISIS is defeated, so why is this necessary?” It’s a tough political stand to say this money is required, time for the US to pull out!
You forget that congress is dominated by Zionists, just as the rest of Zionist-Occupied Government (ZOG).
Maybe or maybe not, we shall see. Some on this site believe the entire world is controlled by the Zionist. This includes China ! :DDDDD
ok, maybe not Asia. But everywhere else…
Murican cunts…. seriously, what a filthy evil pack of warmongering fuckers….
They’ve been lying consistently since Kennedy.
Kurds are around seven percent of Syrian population – but with US-SOF they are occupying around thirty percent of Syria’s territory including the major hydro-carbon resource fields. Kurds have absolutely no legitimate historical claim to the vast majority of this territory – so the Kurd-US-SOF occupation of east Dier Ezzore is ultimately unsustainable. But the US policy hasn’t changed – they still seek regime change in Damascus – they just have extremely limited tools and options to try and achieve this inside Syria, and forcibly holding swathes of central and south eastern Syrian territory is part of an aggressive attempt to blackmail the Syrian leadership into making political concessions.
The presence of CJTFOIR is not illegal. Badly researched article, if not propaganda.
Your definition of “legal” would seem to be “might makes right”. By your standards Adolf’s actions in Poland were legal, as were the IJA’s in Nanjing. ISIS and Qaida actions are legal, according to you. Wahhabistan’s genocide of Yemen’s people is “legal” according to you. Do please explain what makes the CIA/Mossad aggression against Syria “legal”?
Before we start, there are basically only three clear-cut international law justifications for use of force:
(1) a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution providing Chapter 7 authority, (see here: http://www.un.org/en/sectio… )
(2) self-defense against an act of aggression by a territorial state,
(3) and an invitation by the legitimate authority of a sovereign state for foreign troops to act within its borders—“consent of a territorial state.”
As far as I’ve understood the official citations correctly, the reasoning is as follows:
Joint coalition forces are referring to UNSC Resolution 2249 and Article 51 as their legal justification to have a ground in Syria. While UNSC Res. 2249 calls upon member states to “take all necessary measures” against ISIS and Al Nusra in Syria and Iraq, the latter Article has more to do with Iraq’s official invitation for “collective self-defense” and not with Syria in particular.
However, (2) and (3) are not holding, BUT (1) is indeed valid since ISIS poses a threat to global peace (they are a UN recognized terrorist organization) and there is still an act of aggression present coming from Syria into Iraq (you don’t need an aggression from the government itself) which activates Article 51. Side Note: Turkey argued similarly to have a ground in Syria.
Daesh is done and Syria has asked US and Turkey to leave. ISIS is not a justification for US and Ottoman invasion of Syria, it is a premise. A false cynical premise, like Adolf claiming Poland attacked Germany. (Gleiwitz Incident).
You’re far from reality if you claim that. I still can remember pretty vivid when journalists visited Kilis to report the living conditions of refugees and rockets fell continuously down the streets. The same happened to Kobane. ‘Operation inherent resolve‘ started rather due international pressure.
Of course you can exploit that by including your own interests into it as Turkey did mostly. However, initial strikes were rather reactionary and short-term answers. That’s why Turkey’s fight on ISIS was so badly organized.
The Satanists Obama/Hillzebub cabal’s agenda was promoting ISIS and terrorism worldwide. They had notable successes in Libya, Mali, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Egypt under Morsi. Trump’s agenda, in so far as dealing with ISIS is the opposite. Unfortunately he is hamstrung by Deep State Stay Behind networks of Globalist trash. If Mueller does one thing good it would be outing and ousting the Mole, Kushner. Trump has shown he is not immune to being manipulated by Globalist traitors, but he is not a traitor himself.
Stop trying to change the subject to Adolf, and Poland. Poop doesn’t improve the flavor of ice cream.
Making an analogy is not changing the subject.
Of course it does. It’s a hot button. It goes from a conversation on Syria to Nazis, and Hitler, and eventually to the holocaust. I’ve watched people like you work your years. Your new to this site, and I’ve have to wonder what bottle you popped out of?
He is giving you a similiar scenario and then asking you if your reasoning would apply. Just because he invokes the name “Hitler”? Changes nothing in what he is presenting you with.
The scenario is not similar. He’s using a hot button to change the subject. I notice that you’re new to this site, and you regularly jump in with Richard. It sort of makes me wonder if you two know each other?
Don’t know Richard M but I am enjoying the exchange between you. I usually hang out on RT but I grow weary of their constant deletion of comments. When I go to the comment section I don’t want to see “Comment Deleted” , I want to read the comment. Using a “Hot Button”? Read Godwin’s Law. It will give you a fresh appreciation on what you just posted: “Godwin’s Law is an internet adage that is derived from one of the earliest bits of Usenet wisdoms, which posits that “if you mention Hitler or Nazis within a discussion thread, you’ve automatically ended whatever discussion you were taking part in.””
Turkey is all into this deception game. At first it pretended to oppose the US and to be pulling towards Russia and Iran and somehow throwing hints of reproachment with the democratically elected Syrian president and his government. But that lasted only until Turkey and Saudi Arabia got the S400 from Russia and a scandalous Syria back stabbing deal with Russia for Turkey to be assigned Northern Syria while the US was assigned all of resource rich Eastern Euphrates Syria, leaving the Syrian gvernment with barely 55% of its original territory. Turkey is not in opposition to the SDF or the YPG. This is part of the dception game and Putin swallowed it to his throat. Now Turkey has aligned itself with the US invasion and occupation forces in preparation for a joint broad Zionist coalition against the Syrian government forces triggered as usual by another false flag gas attack. As usual Russia’s bartering has misfired because the Zionists are now no longer content with the Cherry on the cake. They want it all.
Yes, Turkey is turning back to the U$, Russia has hit the road, and Syria will be torn apart, and divided up. The U$ is in this one to win it, and Russia has bowed out for whatever reason. Who knows, maybe Putin sees a bigger threat headed his way. Time will tell.
If you are correct then Russia doesn’t know it. As I type they are spending $100’s millions upgrading and expanding both their seaport and their airport in Syria.
Russia “plans” to spend this money. They have not spent it, and there is no massive construction underway. This is a multi-year project that has not stared at this time.
Are you suggesting that somebody on the internet posted a lie and I believed it? lol
US is at last being consistent towards SDF and YPG. Providing defensive systems to SDF, imo should include manpads, is totally deescalating. These arms can only hurt someone attacking Northern Syria and those should indeed be shot.
Northern Syria will invest its energies in reconstruction in 2018 and 2019. They have no interest in attacking.
So. I break into your house. I “occupy” your living room..I assure you that all I want is your living room. You look through the door and see that I am busy using my energy in reconstructing, painting and decorating my new possession. You accept my occupation in hope that I don’t expand deeper towards your man-cave. It makes perfect sense.
Syria is Laos and Iraq is South Vietnam , all over again. The Kurds are the Hmong this time around. Suddenly the US wants to form a ‘North Syrian Army’ , led by coalition command?? This looks like a regrouping and rearming exercise, for the defeated Isis and Al Qaeda remnants retreating from the successful, Syrian Government/Iranian/Russian/Palestinian offensives of 2017. I certainly hope that the Jihadis in the North Syrian Army start insider attacks on US Special Forces and CIA personnel. That will teach the US a lesson that there’s no such thing, ‘As the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ , in the Middle East. Vietnam , Laos , Cambodia , Afghanistan , Iraq , Syria , Yemen and Somalia. Endless war and still the US has learned nothing of counterinsurgency warfare. A complete failure of strategic ,planning and cohesive abilities, in the US military command structures if you ask me.