More U.S. Boots on the Ground in Syria



The Pentagon said Monday (Mar 6, 2017) it has sent additional US troops into northern Syria in a show of strength aimed at deterring rival powers from targeting each other instead of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.

Defence Department spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the troops have in recent days entered Manbij city, a former ISIS bastion that US-backed forces liberated last year.

"We have brought in some additional forces to be able to do this reassurance and deterrence mission," Davis said, without giving numbers.

America wants to make sure competing powers congregating in and around Manbij remain focused on hunting ISIS- and not attacking each other.

The United States is backing a Kurdish-Arab alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight ISIS, and these fighters pushed the extremists from Manbij last year.

Turkish-backed rebels in Syria celebrating after seizing the town of al-Bab from ISIS on Thursday.

Around the same time, Turkey crossed into northern Syria and joined the anti-ISIS fight, while also working to keep in check the Kurdish fighters, which it views as terrorists.

Turkey has threatened to strike the Syrian Kurdish militia forces if they do not withdraw from Manbij.

Last week, Russian and Syrian regime troops headed to Manbij and are now just outside the city, very close to US forces.

That move might be beneficial for the United States, as it could stop Turkey and Kurdish forces - both of whom are US allies - from fighting there. "This is obviously a really complicated situation, Davis said.

"We have made visible actions in deploying US forces as part of the coalition in and around Manbij to reassure and deter - that's to deter parties from attacking any other parties other than ISIS itself."

The US military currently has about 500 mostly special-operations troops in northern Syria on a train-and-advise mission to help local forces tackle ISIS. Davis said commanders have the ability to request extra troops if needed.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation...5180c.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...Syria.html

I hope they have great success and don't die trying to achieve it.

That monster has gassed his own people again. trump spoke out about it, he called Assad an animal and for the first time mentioned Putin. Russia has responded - "Military intervention under false & fabricated pretexts in Syria, where Russian servicemen stay at the request of the legitimate government, is absolutely unacceptable and may trigger the gravest consequences."

Russia is basically saying the reporting & video footage is fake news.

(04-08-2018, 03:23 PM)Duchess Wrote: That monster has gassed his own people again. trump spoke out about it, he called Assad an animal and for the first time mentioned Putin. Russia has responded - "Military intervention under false & fabricated pretexts in Syria, where Russian servicemen stay at the request of the legitimate government, is absolutely unacceptable and may trigger the gravest consequences."

Russia is basically saying the reporting & video footage is fake news.

'Fake News!' -- it's been a very effective propaganda tool against gullible people, allowing leaders to falsely deny their actions and emboldening them to keep crossing previous humanitarian lines. Fake news is real, but real news is being labeled as fake by those who can't accept inconvenient truths all the time.

Even though ISIS has been greatly weakened in Syria over the last few years, the opposition to the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian controllers continues. The civil war rages on.

It's so fucked up; very disturbing and sad seeing the footage of Syrian civilians (including many children) fighting for life and dying in yet another illegal chemical attack.

McMaster warned during his time as U.S. National Security Advisor (and on his way out the door) about the consequences of idolizing autocrats and dictators by some in the west, including plenty of U.S. citizens and our leadership.

In regards to the latest chemical attack in Syria......John McCain issued a public statement pointing a finger at President Trump's comments last week. The President, who says he never announces military intent publicly, did just that when he said he'd be pulling U.S. troops out of Syria in the next six months. That reportedly took U.S. security and military leaders by surprise.

In McCain's view, Trump's statement emboldened Assad and Putin and Iranian ground forces to step up atrocities against opposition groups and against unaffiliated Syrian citizens unfortunate enough to be living in areas under opposition control.

This weekend's retaliatory missile attacks on Iranian ground troop bases in Syria were originally attributed to the U.S. by Russia. It's now believed they were launched by Israel.

The U.N. Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting today in attempt to determine what really happened and how to respond.

However, any of their recommendations can be vetoed by Russian members, meaning allied countries would need to develop their own game plans. Trump and French PM Macron are already reportedly talking strategy between themselves.

I'm interested in hearing new National Security Advisor Bolton's recommendations and seeing whether Trump listens to him.

Every year a new "Boogyman" it gets old after a while.

I don't want to have a war but we can't let that monster continue to do this shit. I heard that this was the 8^th attack this year, I haven't looked further to confirm that.

He likes chemicals and I've often wondered if he had Saddam's stash.

This is impossible. John Kerry said we got all of the chemical weapons from Syria.

Oh, that's right. Some chemicals weren't included, we may not have gotten them all, and bad guys don't follow rules.

If you like your chemical warfare, you can keep your chemical warfare.

Someone/s have got to do the right thing. Take the fucking initiative and do something. People are being murdered. I wasn't alive when Hitler was committing his atrocities but surely this is comparable, right? Do something! Bomb the fuck out of his planes. I don't like sitting back and doing nothing. I feel like it's not an option.

(04-09-2018, 03:29 PM)Duchess Wrote: Someone/s have got to do the right thing. Take the fucking initiative and do something. People are being murdered. I wasn't alive when Hitler was committing his atrocities but surely this is comparable, right? Do something! Bomb the fuck out of his planes. I don't like sitting back and doing nothing. I feel like it's not an option.

It's terrible and it's been going on for 8 years. I think virtually every decent person agrees something needs to be done. Exactly what more can/should be done is the problem.

In my opinion, it's more complicated than addressing the atrocities under Hitler. It was clear who was behind the Jewish genocide in Germany back then. When the allied forces acted, they knew the target.

In Syria, on the other hand, the country was swarmed with extremists from other countries infiltrating the Syrian rebellion after Assad unleashed his military on the rebels.

Taking Assad out might have opened the door for the extremists to take over and led to another power vacuum and terrorist breeding ground, like in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Trying to differentiate the true rebels from the terrorist extremists was very difficult, especially since there was little to no western intel inside Syria.

Arming the rebels earlier on might have meant arming the terrorists who were overpowering the rebels. Some believe Assad was actually hiding behind and using the terrorist infiltrators as a figurative shield, allowing him to attack his own people while creating the image that he was fighting ISIS.

Obama tried to legally intervene with Congressional approval and allied backing after the first case of chemical warfare. But, Congress and the UK voted against it. So, the chemical weapons destruction agreement was reached and Putin stepped in promising to verify the agreed-to destruction of those weapons and aligning himself with Assad, as did Iran.

Now, in my opinion, Syria is pretty much a client state. Russia has heavy military presence and control and Iran has boots on the ground aiding the Assad regime.

The U.S. and its Middle Eastern and western allies continue to launch airstrikes which have helped quash ISIS and competing terrorist factions, but the civil war continues. Taking out Assad now would likely mean a multi-national war of great proportions. And, there is still no clear successor in the wings or any agreement as to what a successor government would look like.

No matter what Trump does, he'll be pissing off a whole lotta people. If the U.S. puts heavy boots on the ground, there will be a good deal of the population in the U.S. and western allies who will object to yet another intervention and attempt to force regime change, especially without solid proof that Assad is behind the chemical attacks. No one wants to see another Iraq invasion fiasco and Trump ran on a non-interventionist platform.

And, if Trump doesn't up the U.S. engagement and exert much more force, there will be a great number of people screaming that the (former or current?) leader of the free world is doing nothing in the face of genocide.

That's my view anyway. I don't know what more should be done, but I sure hope the U.S. and allied experts can agree on an effective strategy. It's very complicated and so fucking sad, with half of Syrian citizens displaced inside and outside of Syria and nearly 500,000 casualties.

(04-09-2018, 04:31 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: That's my view anyway.

Your view is always educated and reasonable. Logically, I get it, but it is extremely difficult not to rail when I see what's going on. The suffering is horrible, unimaginable really. When I see awful things, I want the people to be helped.

The drone videos of the destruction is heartbreaking. Many of them remind me of the Dresden pictures from WW2.

But, but...........John Kerry said that 100% of the chemical stash was gone. I would like to see the evidence that Russia did not lie, yeah..........right along with Iran. Maybe Trump will get proof hopefully.

Is there a republican anywhere that doesn't play whataboutism? It must be fun, so I'll start playing too. With this administration I'll have a shit ton to work with.

(04-10-2018, 04:52 AM)Duchess Wrote:

Is there a republican anywhere that doesn't play whataboutism? It must be fun, so I'll start playing too. With this administration I'll have a shit ton to work with.

I don't think that "whataboutism" is an exclusive republican trait. It's more of an exclusive trait to the current opposition of the presidency.

That's OK Trump will fix Kerry's screw ups with Iran and Syria.

(04-10-2018, 10:21 AM)Maggot Wrote: That's OK Trump will fix Kerry's screw ups with Iran and Syria.

You will be disillusioned.

(04-10-2018, 04:52 AM)Duchess Wrote:

Is there a republican anywhere that doesn't play whataboutism? It must be fun, so I'll start playing too. With this administration I'll have a shit ton to work with.

Actually it's a fun game that can be played on both sides of the aisle. You can do it at every change in administration!

Most recently, Bush blamed Clinton... then Obama blamed Bush... now Trump blames Obama. And the beat goes on and on and on and on...

No. You can do it. I learned as a little kid that there is no defense in saying someone else did it first.

I wish President Trump would stop tweeting about Syria strategies and listen to his advisors. I'd rather the U.S. do nothing for the time being than escalate and get us in a war without a clear and solid strategy and mission. He's all over the map.

That's not a tactic, it's just irresponsible impulsiveness which causes off-guard government officials to issue statements in attempt to walk back the President's proclamations.

First, Trump said the U.S. would be disengaging in Syria, possibly in 6 months.

Then, days later, after the chemical attack on civilians in a suburb of Damascus, he said the U.S. would be making a decision about possible military retaliation against the Assad regime within 24 to 48 hours.

Next, he responded to Putin's threat to knock out U.S. missiles by telling Russia to get ready for nice, new, smart missiles launched by the U.S.

There have been more tweets from the President on the matter -- all examples of what Trump constantly criticized Obama and other Presidents for doing; telegraphing future military action and making direct or implied threats that may not be followed through upon.