After multiple incidents in which US planes have attacked pro-government forces in southern Syria, the Pentagon has now deployed long-range rocket artillery to the area near the rebel base at al-Tanf, raising concerns the US is going to escalate attacks against pro-government forces near the Iraqi border.
This is the first time the US has deployed rocket artillery in the area, and adds to an ever growing footprint of US troops and equipment deployed at al-Tanf, which was supposed to be a base for moderate rebels resisting ISIS, but which is increasingly focused on limiting government expansion into ISIS territory in the area.
Officially, the US has presented its attack on pro-government militias as “self-defense,” arguing that they believed the militias were too close to Tanf for their comfort. The Syrian government has noted the US was never authorized to send ground troops into Syria in the first place, and heavily criticized their attacks on pro-government forces as intended primarily to prevent ISIS losing ground to them.
Though the US clearly has no preference for ISIS either, they are heavily backing an invasion of ISIS territory by the Kurdish YPG, and may be hoping to leave more of the ISIS scraps in the oil-rich east for the Kurds to seize, rather than allowing them to return to government control
To make matters even riskier, the artillery systems in question have an operation range in the hundreds of kilometers, meaning that they are not only able to target Syrian forces close to Tanf, but potentially the ability to hit most anywhere within Syria at will.
Somebody is going to get killed. Somebody US that is. And then what.
Well, Duh…they’ll blame it on Putin…or Obama. And then they’ll “investigate” and 6 months later, it’ll slide off the radar, lost in the ozone.
Instead of just sitting back and letting Syria and Iraq close in on ISIS on their common border, US decided to put a toll booth on Damascus-Baghdad highway at Al-Tanf, well inside the border. The blessed e”moderates”, in whose name we are building base, are a collection of remnants of both ISIS and Al-Qaeda Syria defeated, and mercenaries trained in Jordan. But since Syria and Iraq took control of the border region just to the north, THERE IS NO ISIS FRONT IN CONTACT WITH US forces!!! Are they setting up a trip wire? Poor US soldiers — sent on another meddling mission. As ISIS is collapsing, not thanks to Kurds, that just allowed them to leave to fight Government in Deir Azzor. It is mostly government that is liberating all pockets of ISIS. And even when government liberates, Kurds attack government forces to try to grab liberated villages to expand territory. Now between Kurds and US presence in Al-Tanf, the section of border between Iraq and Syria is getting smaller. By controlling borders, US will prevent trade, infrastructure and most importantly a planned gas pipeline from Qatari/Iranian South Pars fields to connect through Iraq and Syria to either LNG facility ot via Turkey to Europe or both.
We are bankrupting ourselves trying to prevent others to develop. Iraq ans Syria are not going to give up on their border. So, we are just committing ourselves to another nation building for Kurds, as well as protecting a mercenary unit we call “moderates” in order to control borders.
Trump was right — we protect other country’s borders for no reason at all, while we cannot protect ours. Only now, he is being made fool of by his generals. And by Senate that is forcing foreign policy on him. This extreme farce cannot hold for too long. Trump cannot appease the deep state — he is not trusted. So even when he does everything they want, Trump will be not allowed to move without minders. He will have to find a way to reorganize military and undercut deep state in Senate, or they will crave more and more power. But the global outcome is devastating for US. The unsettled state of affairs in US — the visible 1/3 od the political struggle iceberg, has decisivelly shifted many nervous countries in China-Russia orbit. This month’s metting of the heads of states of SCO in Astana, saw the assention of India and Pakistan into permanent status. Last year, Egypt and Syria applied. With Turkey already being a SCO partner, and Iran and Afghanistan observrs — it is clear how the famous chessboard is forming. South Korea depends heavily on China for trade. And Japan is moving ever so cautiously into energy cooperation with Russia. The real needs — the development, energy and stability are pushing others to hedge agains our instability and erratic international agenda.
And all that was evident from the exuberance of Clinton era , through Bush unfocused romp around globe, through helpless Obama, being merely a spokesperson for the power brokers behind the scene. Phillipines’ president Duterte described it best — one never knows who to deal with in US. President promises something, but State Department objects, or when State is on board, Pentagon blocks alredy resched agreements. Whether by design or due to power struggle — others do not know where we stand, and are building regional or glibal networks that exclude US. This is really only the beginning of reshuffling that our buzzare foreign policy brings. And this behaviour on our part is even more strange considering that we are pushing energy more into yusn trade and away from dollar — our one competitive advantage in having glibal currency. So instead of getting happy allies and friends to trade with, we are determined to make world hate us. So in effort to conwuer Middle East and insure supremacy of Israel in the region, we are happily sacrificing our own wellbeing and standing in the world.
I wonder how the GIs feel running a toll booth on the Damascus-Baghdad highway. Years of training and all that expensive equipment so they can turn on and off the traffic light. Meanwhile the supposed enemy ISIS is drinking brewskies and chasing the local ladies. No doubt the government will give them a medal for chastity above and beyond. Special forces, uh-rah!