U.S. to Give Some Syria Rebels Ability to Call Airstrikes
Source: WSJ
WASHINGTONThe U.S. has decided to provide pickup trucks equipped with mounted machine guns and radios for calling in U.S. airstrikes to some moderate Syrian rebels, seeking to replicate the success Kurdish forces, aided by American B-1B bombers, had over Islamic State last month.
The plan comes as the U.S. prepares to start training moderate rebels, who are waging a two-front fight against the extremists and Syrian regime forces. Defense officials said American trainers will be in place March 1 in Jordan, with a second site due to open soon after in Turkey.
The Obama administration has been facing growing pressure to step up support for the moderate Syrian rebels from Republican hawks in Congress and from some allies.
The first training sessions are to last between six and eight weeks. The training will focus on helping the rebel forces hold territory and counter Islamic State fightersnot to take on the Syrian army.
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-give-some-syria-rebels-ability-to-call-airstrikes-1424208053
The full article can be read by typing the headline into a search engine like google and then by clicking on the resulting link
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Though airstrikes were very successful for the Kurds
Yet appearances deceive: This is not an independent state. Youre in Iraq more precisely, the part of northern Iraq known officially as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Youll be reminded of this fact when you open your wallet to pay for something: the local currency is still the Iraqi dinar (though the U.S. dollar circulates widely). Nor do any of the foreign governments that maintain consulates in Erbil recognize Kurdish statehood; nor, for that matter, does the government of the KRG itself. For the time being, Iraqi Kurdistan is still under Baghdads writ.
Emphasis on for the time being. In July of last year, KRG President Massoud Barzani asked his parliament to start preparing for a referendum on independence. It was a suitably dramatic response to the stunning disintegration of the Iraqi state under then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Earlier, in January 2014, Malikis government had cut off financial transfers to the Kurds as part of a fight over control of oil resources, enraging Erbil even as his repressive policies toward Iraqs Sunni Arabs were fueling the dramatic rise of the Islamic State (IS). Last summer, after IS forces shocked the world by seizing control of Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, the jihadists pushed from there deep into Kurdish territory, at one point getting within 25 miles of Erbil.
Buoyed by U.S.-led airstrikes on IS positions, the Kurdish army, the Peshmerga, soon rallied, forcing the Islamic State to retreat. But the Kurds didnt stop there. The collapse of the demoralized Iraqi Army in large swathes of northern Iraq had created a vacuum that Kurdish troops were only too happy to fill. Almost by accident, KRG leaders abruptly found themselves ruling 40 percent more territory than at the start of the conflict.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/21/the-worlds-next-country-kurdistan-kurds-iraq/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)No chance at all of us getting dragged into a shooting war either, the moderates would never think of getting us to attack Assad directly.
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)The moderate rebels are human right violators themselves, often using child soldiers so Assad has responded by indiscriminately killing men & boys.
In any case, Syria will long remain a situation before someone "wins", especially supporting multiple sides with different interests but happen to have IS as an enemy.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Although I have to say ISIS has given a good account of itself in that regard too, and ISIS does seem to be involved in the Syrian civil war. Still Assad has had a long time to get his numbers up, so you are probably right.
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Assad keeps the detention, torture, and "disappearances" to himself. Journalists have been killed by IS and in Syrian prisons.
The mass killings of civilian populations in cities are probably the worst of the Assad violations.
Assad airstrike in Aleppo
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Since a lot of the fighting of Syrias conflict takes place in heavily populated towns and urban areas, sniper kill zones often dissect neighborhoods and fighters dig in and embed among the civilian population. Effectively, this makes human shields of their inhabitants, and inevitably ensures they suffer disproportionately when those entrenched combatants start to fight and shell each others positions. This is made worse by the very nature of this type of urban warfare, which usually produces deadly stalemates, or only excruciatingly slow advances at terribly high cost. This callousness and indifference to the suffering of Syrians by those fighting in their name the Syrian regime and the rebel and jihadist groups opposing it has been a central and dominant theme throughout this messy and brutal war.
Another disturbing aspect in which civilians are caught up in the war is through the heavy indiscriminate bombing of their neighborhoods by the infamous barrel bombs dropped by regime helicopters from high altitude on rebel-held areas, the main purpose being to clear out the residents and make the areas easier to capture. Needless to say, the results of such bombing campaigns are catastrophic. This sometimes goes in tandem with crippling sieges that can last for months or even years, causing untold misery and suffering for the people trapped inside, who have to not only contend with a possible quick death from above but also a slow agonizing death from starvation and poverty.
Being in an area that one of the warring camps controls does not necessarily delineate support for that camp, although it is matter-of-factly portrayed as such by the propaganda machine of the other side, seeking to justify its excessive brutality. This divisive us against them is a rather peculiar aspect of this conflict, even if not surprising. A terrified populace can easily be polarized against their former friends and neighbors, especially when told that they are now the enemy, with corroboration of that coming in the form of deadly shells and bombs fired from their areas. We have experienced this first hand in Aleppo city, for instance, where rebels shell neighborhoods in the west (the regime-controlled part) on a daily basis, killing and wounding many people, with the justification being that anyone still living there must be shabiha, a derogatory term for a regime loyalist.
Thus, the warring camps in Syria seek to consolidate support among our civilians while demonizing their civilians, which makes mass slaughter of people more palatable and acceptable. In fact, in the tit-for-tat shelling of Damascus city and eastern Ghouta earlier this month, there were calls to wipe Douma out, and everyone in it, by people in Damascus, while those in Ghouta cheered with glee every time rockets were fired into the capital. Of course these sentiments are not universally shared or accepted, but illustrate how quickly desensitized and dehumanized people living through the horrors of war can become. The end result, though, was equally as grotesque as those attitudes, with many deaths and injuries in Damascus, and a disproportionate number of people killed in Ghouta, too, with the unsettling prospect of this mutual slaughter now becoming the new norm as both sides continue to threaten and escalate their rhetoric.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/syria-war-civilian-casualties-regime-opposition-jihadists.html#ixzz3S3hNhBUh
bonzotex
(865 posts)The WSJ article quotes exactly nobody. At best, this is an idea. Other stupider sites are already picking this up and declaring the US already doing this. I have no doubt there are a lot of politicians that like this idea, but the USAF isn't lobbying for it.
This would be a horrible idea. The Kurdish situation was/is very different and it was still a very questionable operation. Giving targeting ability to Syrian "rebels" - using our aircraft and weapons - is stunningly fucking stupid. Even considering how badly we've managed our adventures in the Middle East, I can't believe the JCS would sign off on this.
I really doubt this will ever happen.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)We are to the point now where 90%-plus of the "news" is some PR bullshit.