“I don’t have a problem with the tactics of it. And the numbers might even have to be larger at some point”, Florida Senator Marco Rubio said of the Obama administration’s disclosure on Friday of the deployment of fewer than 50 special operations troops on the ground in northern Syria in the coming weeks.
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Iraq melted down after the premature withdrawal of US troops in the aftermath of the successful military surge that stabilized the country and was led by retired Gen. David Petraeus.
“The troops have to fall in on a political plan”, Moulton said.
“Deploying a handful of USA special operations forces to Syria will not change this situation significantly”, said Frederic Hof, former special advisor for the transition in Syria at the US State Department.
Obama repeatedly has used the costly and unpopular Iraq War as an example of what he’s tried to avoid. It marks the first time the United States has openly sent forces into Syria, expanding the geographic reach of Obama’s military efforts in the Middle East.
“America needs a strategy to defeat ISIL, remove Assad from power, and end the conflict in Syria that continues to threaten our security and that of our allies”, Rubio said.
Other opposition groups are not just anxious about the growing strength of the YPG but believe the priority should be to fight the Syrian government.
But the crisis has become unavoidable for Obama, particularly since Isis crossed the border into Iraq. A civil war that Obama once could pin on Syrians to settle has now threatened to upend the entire region.
“What we’re about to accomplish is to turn Syria over to Russian Federation and Iran, and to make sure that we never destroy [Isis] on Obama’s watch, and pass this mess on to the next president”, Graham said on Fox News Sunday, referring to the Islamic State militants.
Earnest insisted their role should not be described as a “combat mission”, saying the troops would train, advise and assist local forces in an intensification of the US effort against the Islamic State group.
One expert predicts Russian airstrikes in Syria could at least make the mission more hard for the US special operations forces who will now be serving there.
And, Abu Hamza of the Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigade who is hoping their alliance with the Kurds will not only provide support, but also help retaliate against the Jihadists added, “We need uniforms, we need ammunition, we need everything.”
However, the YPG was stopped short of Raqqa and has fought back-and-forth battles with IS in northeastern Syria throughout the year. From what we have seen so far Ukraine, Syria, Georgia all of this West versus East rhetoric nearly all of it took place by design, it is a business proposition.
The White House maintains that the United States presence in Syria will be limited to building partner capacities and will not resemble the large-scale U.S. military presence of earlier wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The White House put no timetable on how long the American forces will stay.
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Russian diplomats and military officials contend the air attacks are aimed at Islamic State extremists, but that claim is widely disputed by the USA and others, who say the Russians have too often bombed Syrian opposition fighters who have no connection with, or allegiance to, the Islamic State militants.
