Initially having deployed to the general vicinity in October as part of a naval mission, US Marines from the 11th Expeditionary Unit have over the past few weeks quietly gone ashore in Syria and moved to the area around the ISIS capital of Raqqa, establishing an artillery base.
Details are still scant. Officials refused to confirm the size of the unit or other details, beyond them having a number of M777 howitzers, and a support unit of infantry Marines along with them, marking the first time US artillery has been deployed into Syria.
The idea in this case is to have advanced US artillery on hand, with US troops firing it, in support of the Kurdish YPG’s eventual invasion of the city of Raqqa. The US announced the invasion fo Raqqa last year, and so far Kurdish forces have only surrounded parts of the city.
It is unknown how many US troops are now active in Syria. When President Trump took office, estimates were around 300, but a number of Army Rangers were deployed over the weekend into Manbij, and these deployments apparently happened before that, though we’re only just hearing about them now.
These deployments appear to be separate from Pentagon recommendations for substantial numbers of ground troops sent to Syria, recommendations that were delivered last week, and which officially have not been decided upon yet.
A slow, slog of an all out invasion of Syria. Plain and simple.
The Marines have ‘gone ashore’ in Syria through ‘landings’ in northern Iraq. it’s highly unlikely that all their materiel was trucked-in from Kuwait, so it is probable that it was either airlifted in, or brought in through Turkey. It definitely never ‘came ashore’ anywhere in Syria.
they have restored and built several small air field through out kurdish areas for the past year or so iirc
Boots on the ground. Idiots.
So has the President of Syria OKed this deployment or have the US, once again used bully boy tactics and defied nternational law and convention and just barged in?
he’s not speaking against it.
How do you know?.
You trust the MSM?
Or have you your own sources.
And surely international law stands on its own.
A leader doesn’t have to actually reinforce it verbally.
the Syrian army has liberated over 20 villages from terrorists in the last 24 hours – with the cooperation of Russia and the United States. News is from SANA, AL-MANAR, AL MASDAR and TASS.
So where is the actual report that the USA did a thing?
Russia and the Syrians I can believe.
Good question Em!
He doesn’t know the answer but he might make something up.
No, and he’s probably spoken against it. unam doesn’t know but thinks it’s nice to say he does. You can’t take the warmonger completely out of the American. And vice versa.
And the Intercept story:
Trump Picks Hawkish Critic of Russia as NATO Ambassador
Trump picks?? How could that be? Could it be true that Trump never did intend on improving US/Russia relations.
He may be intimidated by the rhetoric (LOL excuse) but he would never choose a hawk for Nato ambassador. After he’s made it clear that Nato is obsolete???
It’s time for Raimondo to go sit in the corner and have a good cry. Then come back and tell us that he’s going to start acting like a grownup.
Why are you always commenting on Antiwar.com. What is your purpose in commenting on every article and I don’t even think you agree with the purpose or ideas posted on this website and you seem to “hate” Raimondo so I would appreciate hearing why you even bother reading the articles.
It’s because I want to help Raimondo understand. He’s not a bad guy at heart but he’s gone off the rails completely.
I think that one of his biggest problems to begin with is him being a Republican. That would make him go kneejerk with Trump to start with. And now he’s gotten himself in too deep to change abruptly. I think he’ll try to sneak up on the question of Trump over a few weeks but he can’t do that for too long because nobody will be left believing in Trump for more than that unless they are complete foaming at the mouth, batshit crazy!
Hoping that answers ya’alls questions there li’l jasmine?
I don’t think he needs you to straighten him out on anything.. I’ve been following him for a long time and I find him very credible. I can see why he banned you, you are completely of the wall when it comes to US politics. You would be better off sticking to you’re own in Canada and leave him alone.
Sure does look like the US doesn’t even consider it necessary that it can use a WMD/chem/bio weapons use by Assad this time. Making Obama/Putin’s work with Assad to get rid of those weapons, all for nought.
Fabricating legitimacy for another war would be above Trump’s capability to think. And besides, his hawk advisors know he can get away with it.
Iran is going to be a cakewalk for Trump. Bets on when it will start?
Looks like the fundraising drive took about 24 days. Pretty good if we’re supposed to believe that “we made it” and not the graph that shows it short.
Was that longer or shorter than the last one? Just wondering?
I could be wrong, but I think it took 10-14 days. I don’t keep track of how long the quarterly fundraisers take — apart from making sure they get plugged in our social media, they’re not part of my job.