Thursday, January 26, 2017

Trump Proposal For Syria "Safe Zones" To Escalate US Military Involvement In The Region

Tyler Durden writes:

As part of his blitz of latest executive orders, which as reported yesterday would institute sweeping changes to U.S. refugee and immigration policies including a ban on people from countries in the Middle East and North Africa deemed as a "terror risk", a separate order also lays the groundwork for an escalation of U.S. military involvement in Syria by directing the Pentagon and the State Department to craft a plan to create safe zones for civilians fleeing the conflict there.

Trump said on Wednesday he "will absolutely do safe zones in Syria" for refugees fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, Trump is expected to order the Pentagon and the State Department in the coming days to come up with a plan for the zones.

Such safe zones could provide an alternative to admitting refugees to the U.S. according to Trump, but would also force greater US military deployment to the region.

According to the WSJ, the safe-zone proposal represents a significant policy reversal from the administration of Barack Obama, who long resisted pressure for such an approach from Congress and U.S. allies in the Middle East because he believed it would draw the U.S. too deeply into another war.

Establishing safe zones in Syria would mark an escalation in America’s military involvement there. In addition to the initial military buildup that likely would be needed to create the zones, ground troops and additional air power will be needed to protect them, military officials have said. Such zones would also put U.S.-allied forces in dangerous proximity to foreign troops, including forces from Russia and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Confirming that Trump's proposal plays into the hands of the party that has been mostly responsible for the relentless proxy war in Syria over the past 6 years, Qatar, a backer of rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, welcomed Trump's pledge to order safe zones in Syria, a foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by state news agency QNA on Thursday.

Qatar's foreign ministry director of information, Ahmed al-Rumaihi, said in a statement that Qatar welcomed Trump's comments on Wednesday and "emphasized the need to provide safe havens in Syria and to impose no-fly zones to ensure the safety of civilians." Rumaihi said Qatar hoped recent negotiations in Kazakhstan would help maintain a shaky truce between Syria's warring parties and that an effective monitoring mechanism would be needed to create conditions for proposed peace talks in Geneva.

As a reminder, gas-rich Qatar works alongside Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Western nations to back Syrian rebels in a military aid program overseen by the CIA that provides moderate groups with arms and training.

7 comments:

  1. Before the election, in an effort to defuse family differences, I joked, "Look, no matter WHO wins, this time next year we'll all miss Obama. I didn't think it would be TWO weeks!

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    1. Hahahah....funny you say that ("two weeks") as I was thinking nearly the same thing, except that it has only been a week. :)

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  2. Who could have predicted such an escalation by Trump? Oh wait.....

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  3. Don't jump to conclusions maybe Pres. Trump will work with Russia and Assad to WIPE ISIS & al Qaeda Off The Face of The Map."

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    1. Not until all foreign troops are gone from the Middle East.

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    2. you're right, we just haven't bombed enough.

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  4. Drama! Drama! Drama! I have to say that Trump's brash, rash, in-your-face, macho, pugnacious, combative, warmongering style has breathed new life into the public discourse, and as my left leaning son and daughter-inlaw admitted things aren't as hunky dory in the land of Hopey-Changey as they thought. For them Trump doesn't possess the proper presidential demeanor, the cool, rational, smooth-talking style of Obama. Obama's rhetoric of we can do this Hopey- Changey thing together through "our government" appeals to their sense of community and their belief that govt. intervention can be good with the right people in power, though they are beginning to have some doubts about this. I am sympathetic to their dilemma because I was there once and it took me a long time to realize that the state, any state, is the enemy of human freedom, peace and prosperity.

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