After more
than six years of unimaginable catastrophe that killed thousands,
created millions of refugees and internally displaced, the Syrian war
is still in process, yet, the most ruthless force seems to be
achieving its primary target.
As the
TeleSur
reported:
U.S.-backed
Kurdish forces in Syria — who are among Washington's most important
and powerful regional allies — told Reuters Thursday that the U.S.
military will remain in northern Syria “for decades to come.”
A
spokesman from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of
militias headed by the Kurdish YPG, Talal Silo, told Reuters that the
the United States has a "strategic interest" in the area,
and that U.S. forces will be staying there long after the Islamic
state group might be defeated.
[...]
The
U.S. military has funded the SDF extensively, also supporting them
with air strikes, artillery, and special forces on the ground. It was
in March when the then-new U.S. administration of President Donald
Trump began distributing arms to the YPG, ahead of their assault in
Raqqa. When probed about their long-term strategy, Col. Ryan Dillon,
another spokesman for the coalition, deferred Reuters to the U.S.
Pentagon, adding that there is “still a lot of fighting to do, even
after ISIS has been defeated in Raqqa". Eric Pahon, a Pentagon
spokesman, in turn, stated, “The Department of Defense does not
discuss timelines for future operations. However we remain committed
to the destruction of ISIS and preventing its return.”
The
head of the YPG revealed last month that the United States has
established seven military bases in areas of northern Syria that are
controlled by the YPG or SDF, including a major air base near Kobani,
which borders Turkey.
Despite the
chaos by losing control over various extremist groups trained by CIA,
it appears that the US achieves its primary target for permanent
military presence in northern Syria. The Nobel Peace Prize(!) holder
and proxy-wars expert, Barack Obama, has set the scene for Donald
Trump. The US imperialists have learned from the disastrous Iraq war
and decided to act "smarter" this time. They reached goal
through a few airstrikes and minimum loses, just by training and
arming different militant groups. The only problem is that it took
longer. By the way, no one could blame them for direct invasion this
time.
Syrian war
shows emphatically how ruthless the US imperialists are. They won't
give up their 'investments' in the Middle East, whatever it takes.
And they have 'invested' for decades, especially in two sides, which
have enormous ideological differences. On the one hand, the Kurdish
communities, organized upon the most progressive ideas in the Middle
East. On the other, the Saudis, the most brutal theocratic regime in
the region. This fact depicts perfectly that the US imperialists will
support anyone - no matter how democratic or tyrannic - who will help
them to fulfill their goals.
Despite the
geopolitical games through various pipelines, the ultimate plan of
the US in the region was to create a continuous surveillance zone
that would expand from the Iranian borders through north Iraq and
Syria, up to the eastern Mediterranean coast. It appears that mission
accomplished.
Through this
zone, the US will attempt to:
- Control all key roads of the pipelines from Gulf States to the north, and therefore, the main energy paths to Europe.
- Put barriers against the normal functioning of the Syria-Russia-Iran-Hezbollah alliance in various levels.
- Become a significant and 'annoying' power of tight scrutiny against the Russian presence in the east Mediterranean with the prospect to prevent the expansion of Russian permanent naval and other military bases.
- Restrict further Sino-Russian economic expansion in the region.
With the
ongoing chaos in Middle East, no one can tell to what extent the US
will succeed on these goals, but the first key step is completed.
Furthermore, there is another big question mark that seems to trouble
the US imperialists: Turkey.
It appears
that the relationship of the US with this strategic ally and one of
the largest NATO armies becomes increasingly problematic. The rapid
deterioration of the relations between the US and Turkey coincided
with the beginning of the Syrian chaos, probably because Erdogan
completely ignored the US interests in the region, by trying to
promote his own agenda.
Turkey
exploited the Syrian chaos and tried to crush Kurdish resistance. One
of the reasons that supported ISIS was to use it against the Kurds.
It is a sub-proxy war by Turkey in the area according to its own
agenda. The US is probably not very happy with that because it wanted
to use ISIS in full force against Assad and considers Kurds as
allies.
Things got
even worse last month. As Bloomberg
reported:
Turkey’s
state-run news agency published U.S. base locations in northern
Syria, a move that threatens to deepen distrust between the two
allies by exposing American soldiers on the front lines of the fight
against Islamic State.
In
reports published in both Turkish and English on Tuesday, Turkey’s
state-run Anadolu Agency provided detailed information about 10 U.S.
bases in northern Syria, including troop counts and a map of the U.S.
force presence in the Turkish version. The reports said that the
military outposts are “usually hidden for security reasons, making
it hard to be detected.” It said they were located “in the
terrorist PKK/PYD-held Syrian territories,” a reference to Kurdish
groups that Turkey’s government considers terrorist organizations.
Despite
a tight military alliance dating back to the Cold War, Turkey and the
U.S. have been at odds for years now over the U.S. backing of Kurdish
fighters in Syria who are affiliated with separatist movements inside
Turkey. The Turkish government probably leaked U.S. troop locations
to Anadolu as retaliation, according to Aaron Stein, a fellow at the
Atlantic Council in Washington.
Despite
fulfilling their primary target, everything shows that the US
imperialists will not have an easy job in the chaotic Middle East
puzzle.
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