There is and always has been a strategy.
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Amid Obama’s reluctance to become enmeshed in another Middle East war, the US-backed opposition – a uneasy mix of Kurds, Shia and Sunni Arabs – has been reluctant to fight IS rather than President Bashar al-Assad.
Bush applauded Obama for deciding to deploy special forces.
“It will not be their responsibility to lead the charge up the hill”, Earnest said. Jim Inhofe, said “history has shown that a gradual increase in military force to achieve a non-existent strategy is a recipe for failure”.
The United States’ decision to send troops into Syria is an act of aggression because it does not have the government’s agreement, a Syrian member of parliament said Saturday.
There is no quick fix to Syria’s problems.
Obama began his second term having brought one war in Iraq to an end and pledging to bring home America’s ground troops from a second in Afghanistan. One of its goals is to take back that part of Idlib Province that has fallen to the Army of Conquest, in which at least two al-Qaeda-linked guerrilla groups play a big role.
The Syrian Democratic Forces also do not have their own bases or even a defined command structure, according to Talal Sillu, a spokesman for the alliance of fighters. The meeting would be held to determine an interim Damascus government and the process for a new constitution and elections.
Several other steps were also announced Friday, including a new potential deployment to Iraq. If any cease-fire is agreed to, it would not prevent attacks against such groups.
The military side is no less complicated. Republicans belittled it as a paltry move that would not change the dynamics on the ground, especially with Russian Federation now actively involved in the war. And while about four dozen U.S. troops “is a pretty marginal contribution of forces, what they may be able to do is cooperate more effectively with [rebel] forces on the ground”, says Emma Ashford, a visiting fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute in Washington.
“The Turkish authorities are highly concerned about our continuous progress against ISIL terrorists, and they are trying to stop us under the pretext that we are merely fighting for the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish state on their border”.
Obama’s first move was to deploy a few hundred US troops to Iraq to train and assist local forces in the fight against the Islamic State.
“We must work with our coalition allies to eliminate ISIL, but we should learn from the mistakes of the past and avoid taking actions where the risks and costs far outweigh the benefits”.
“We already have seen that slippery slope in action as the administration has gone from a limited ground presence in Iraq, to over 3,000 advisers and trainers”, he said. “There’s nothing quite like the face-to-face contact”.
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The U.S.is also looking at providing Iraqi forces with additional equipment and training to counter roadside bombs and vehicle-borne explosive devices. Meanwhile, Lieut. Jones will take our 10 best snipers to Sadad, a mostly Christian town, to pick off Islamic state fighters until they retreat.
