Posts
have
been trying to make sense of current events in Syria. The Turks are
attacking the US-backed Kurds in Afrin. It seems that the Russians
removed their forces to allow this and have an agreement with Erdogan
while the Syrian government has understandably come out against an
attack on its national sovereignty.
There
is no morality in geopolitics.
However
I am finding this very confusing and hard to interpret.
Most
people’s attention is directed elsewhere - if not government
shutdown in the USA then pussy hats and female pudenda in support of
the Deep State coup.
“Turkey's
airforce is not flying in Syria without Russia's and the Syrian
govt's permission. A deal has obviously been struck, and the Afrin
Kurds have been sold up the river to Erdogan and his Islamist proxies
��’
—Mark
Sleboda
Turkish
Jets Hit Menagh Airbase Used by US to Supply Arms to Kurds - Reports
20
January, 2018
More
than 70 Turkish military aircraft have been engaged in Ankara's Olive
Branch operation in northern Syria against the Kurdish troop,
according to Turkey' General Staff.
The
Turkish Air Force attacked the Menagh Military Airbase
in northwestern Syria, which the US used for supplying
weapons to Kurdish armed forces, the Hurriyet newspaper reported
citing military sources.
The
newspaper noted that the airfield was among the 113 targets
scheduled for the attack during Operation Olive Branch
in Syrian Africa.
Commenting
on the Olive Branch operation, launched earlier in the day,
Turkey' General Staff announced that more than 70 Turkish
military aircraft have been engaged in the offensive.
"The
airstrikes were conducted against terrorist targets in seven
districts of Afrin, where 108 targets were hit. Seventy two
aircraft of the Turkish Air Force engaged in the operation
have successfully returned to their bases," the statement
said.
As
the Rojahat Roj, the Press Secretary of the Kurdish
Self-Defense Forces YPG in Afrin, told Sputnik, the Turkish
military advance resulted in bombing of about 100 positions
in the Afrin area, with no casualties among the YPG
forces, but at least sevean civilians wounded. As he specified,
the Turkish military and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) wanted to enter
Afrin from the territory of the Bilbile district, but YPG
forces managed to prevent the move. According to the
spokesperson, clashes are ongoing.
The
press service of the authorities of the Afrin canton told
Sputnik that at least 10 people were injured
in airstrikes.
"According
to the recent figures, 10 people were injured, including three
people who suffered severe wounds. The list of injured people
includes two children," the press service said, adding that
local authorities had called on the residents of Afrin
to donate blood for the victims of the Turkish
airstrikes.
Despite
the Ankara's assurances that they have notified Damascus about the
operation progress, the latter has refuted these statements,
vigorously condemning the move and calling it the infringement
on the country's sovereignty.
The main aim has to be to get the Americans out of Syria and if Erdogan is part of that then maybe all the better.
Erdogan takes on US border forces in Syria: “We will destroy all terror nests, one by one”
A US-Turkish Clash in Syria?
20 January, 2018
This
was predictable. The Duran has been stating now for over a year that
Turkey’s Erdogan would never allow the Kurds to set up any sort of
state, quasi-state, or (as Rex Tillerson outlined last week) a
“Border Security Force” made up of Kurdish fighters.
The
a Kurdish presence south of Turkey is a threat to Turkey’s very
existence as a nation state. Erdogan will have no choice but to crush
America’s BSF forces.
The
question on Pat Buchanan’s mind is what will the US reaction
be?
The war for dominance in the Middle East, following the crushing of ISIS, appears about to commence in Syria — with NATO allies America and Turkey on opposing sides.
Turkey is moving armor and troops south to Syria’s border enclave of Afrin, occupied by Kurds, to drive them out, and then drive the Syrian Kurds out of Manbij further south as well.
Says President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “We will destroy all terror nests, one by one, in Syria, starting from Afrin and Manbij.”
For Erdogan, the Kurdish YPG, the major U.S. ally in Syria, is an arm of the Kurdish PKK in Turkey, which we and the Turks have designated as a terrorist organization.
While the Kurds were our most effective allies against ISIS in Syria, Turkey views them as a mortal peril and intends to deal with that threat.
If Erdogan is serious, a clash with the U.S. is coming, as our Kurdish allies occupy most of Syria’s border with Turkey.
Moreover, the U.S. has announced plans to create a 30,000-man Border Security Force of Kurds and Arabs to keep ISIS out of Syria.
Erdogan has branded this BSF a “terror army,” and President Bashar Assad of Syria has called BSF members “traitors.”
This U.S. plan to create a BSF inside Syria, Damascus declared, “represents a blatant attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity and unity of Syria, and a flagrant violation of international law.”
Does not the Syrian government have a point?
Now that ISIS has been driven out of Raqqa and Syria, by what authority do U.S. forces remain to arm troops to keep the Damascus government from reimposing its authority on its own territory?
Secretary of State Tillerson gave Syria the news Wednesday.
The U.S. troop commitment to Syria, he said, is now open-ended.
Our goals: Guarantee al-Qaida and ISIS do not return and set up sanctuary; cope with rising Iranian influence in Damascus; and pursue the removal of Bashar Assad’s ruthless regime.
But who authorized this strategic commitment, of indefinite duration, in Syria, when near two decades in Afghanistan have failed to secure that nation against the return of al-Qaida and ISIS?
Again and again, the American people have said they do not want to be dragged into Syria’s civil war. Donald Trump won the presidency on a promise of no more unnecessary wars.
Have the American people been had again?
Will they support a clash with NATO ally Turkey, to keep armed Kurds on Turkey’s border, when the Turks regard them as terrorists?
Are we prepared for a shooting war with a Syrian army, backed by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Shiite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to hold onto a fourth of Syria’s territory in alliance with Kurds?
The U.S. coalition in Syria said this week the BSF will be built up “over the next several years” and “be stationed along the borders … to include portions of the Euphrates river valley and international borders to the east and north.”
Remarkable: A U.S.-created border army is going to occupy and control long stretches of Syria’s borders with Turkey and Iraq, over Syria’s objections. And the U.S. military will stand behind the BSF.
Are the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria really up to that task, should the Turks decide to cleanse the Syrian border of Kurds, or should the Syrian regime decide to take back territory occupied by the Kurds?
Who sanctioned this commitment to a new army, which, if Syria and its Russian and Iranian allies, and the Turks, do not all back down, risks a major U.S. war with no allies but the Kurds?
As for Syria’s Kurds casting their lot with the Americans, one wonders: Did they not observe what happened when their Iraqi cousins, after helping us drive ISIS out of Mosul, were themselves driven out of Kirkuk by the Iraqi army, as their U.S. allies watched?
In the six-year Syrian civil war, which may be about to enter a new phase, America faces a familiar situation.
While our “allies” and adversaries have vital interests there, we do not. The Assads have been in power for the lifetime of most Americans. And we Americans have never shown a desire to fight there.
Assad has a vital interest: preservation of his family regime and the reunification of his country. The Turks have a vital interest in keeping armed Kurds out of their border regions adjacent to their own Kurdish minority, which seeks greater independence.
The Israelis and Saudi royals want the U.S. to keep Iran from securing a land bridge from Tehran to Damascus to Lebanon.
The U.S. War Party wants us to smash Iran and remain in the Middle East forever to assure the hegemony of its favorites.
Have the generals taking us into Syria told the president how and when, if ever, they plan to get us out?
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