In a move which seems almost certain to fail, Turkey’s government is once again stepping up calls for the US to immediately agree to impose a no-fly zone across Syria, insisting the flurry of airstrikes around Aleppo over the past week justify the move.
Turkey has been harping on about a US no-fly zone for years, primarily intending for such a zone to set up an area for Syrian refugees to move to inside of Syria, reducing the number flowing into Turkey. Such plans were repeatedly endorsed by Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign.
President-elect Donald Trump, however, panned the idea during the debates, and is seen shifting the US focus in Syria toward fighting ISIS, not toward onerous military operations meant to deny the Syrian and Russian militaries access to Syrian airspace.
Even if Trump was so inclined, which he isn’t, a no-fly zone has been seen as virtually impossible for months, since Russia moved advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles into Syria to protect their bases in Latakia Province,. Those missile systems effectively give Russia control over Syria’s airspace, and for the US to impose a no-fly zone would require a massive air battle with Russia, which would be all but guaranteed to cost a large number of US warplanes.
If Turkey wants a no-fly zone, let them take the lead and impose it. They’re right there on the border. To paraphrase Little Big Man to General Custer at Little Big Horn, “You go down there… if you’ve got the nerve.”
Whether or not a huge air battle over Syria would cost a large number of US planes is a professional judgment on the outcome of a contest about which we don’t have the necessary information. Everything most important to know that is most classified too.
However, we don’t need to know who would win, or the cost, to know that a major fight with Russia is really bad for us. Stupid too.
Playing at “Spanish Civil War” field testing of weapons goes only the wrong way for our hopes of a more prosperous peaceful country.
Sibel Edmonds for Ambassador to Turkey