The United States is returning to a level of activity in the Middle East unseen in nearly 4 years. This development has become obvious over the weeks since Joe Biden became US President, firstly with a large deployment into Syria, and subsequently with smaller ones.
On February 9th, the Pentagon said that it was no longer in Syria to protect and exploit oil fields.
It is now back to hunting ISIS. Back to the square one of 2014 and the Obama era. ISIS somehow obliged by ramping up their activities throughout Syria.
It is a mystery that they were able to make such a sharp and sudden resurgence. It should also be noted that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces allegedly have about 10,000 ISIS terrorists imprisoned.
This statement of intent denotes a massive shift in posture for the US. When defending the oil fields the US troops were mostly static, when hunting ISIS they can, once again, roam around and carry out various operations.
It appears likely that Idlib is now also in focus – US combat drones were observed surveying Greater Idlib. Idlib is a mixed bag – it has Turkish troops, Russians, the Syrian Arab Army along with terrorists and the moderate opposition, although confusing these two groups can be forgiven. The newest, future, US ally is there – the soon-to-be-rebranded Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
An indication of expected escalations and attacks are the Russian and Syrian military drills being carried out near Aleppo during effective wartime. Russia, separately, carried out a naval drill near Tartus.
And, as if by design, long-range missiles attempted to strike Russia’s forces at the Hmeimim Air Base. Drones occasionally attempt to infiltrate its airspace, but missiles are a rare sight.
Meanwhile in Western Daraa, the rebel leaders submitted to Damascus, likely fearing the upcoming chaos and wanting to choose a side.
Finally, the Biden administration is also working to secure Israeli support. The State Department said it doesn’t endorse Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, but doesn’t oppose it. It also provided a $9bn weapon sale as consolation. Tel Aviv is likely to use these weapons to counter its nemesis – Iran. It does so by targeting alleged Iranian interests in Syria.
Syria remains the lynchpin of US Middle East policy but the US posture in Iraq and Afghanistan has also changed. Withdrawing from the region is now out of the question – ISIS is making a resurgence, and there are other groups targeting American forces and convoys.
In Afghanistan, specifically, if the withdrawal does not move forward, the Taliban are also likely to begin targeting the US again.
The democrats are back in control and back to spreading democracy in the Middle East.
Going from out of the frying pan and into the fire. Trump killed some but the Obama clique ziocons are taking the US back into killing millions.
But this is not the world of 2016. Russia, China, and Iran will defend their red lines and have many allies.
Yes you’re right china will defend their redlines. China announced yesterday that they were withdrawing their forces from the Indian border region between Indian Ladakh and Xinjiang where they’ve been in a stand off with India since May of last year. This is according to a breaking report from TASS: https://tass.com/world/1254813
it must be a strategy to focus on the Taiwan straits.
The TASS article says 45 China PLA were killed and 20 Indian Army died in the hand to hand clash they had last year. I find it strange that the PLA would withdrawal after taking such a loss and losing access the neutral zone they were occupying until yesterday.
The Chinese have agreed to retreat from their current positions on ridges 4 to 8 and stay behind the 8th mountain ridge in Pangong Tso area and the Indians will reoccupy ridge number 4 and stay there. Henceforth neither country’s forces will be allowed to patrol between ridges 4 to 8 as they both were in the past. In effect it will become a neutral zone. The PLA is required to demolish all structures and roads they built in this neutral area.
What did the PLA gain? Nothing, in fact, they’ve lost access to the neutral buffer zone where they had built roads and infrastructure. This is perplexing no?
Regarding the $9bn weapons sale to Rogue State, who pays for it?
Good ol’ US tax payer
Well then, this is what we should be exposing loudly and repeatedly. Congress fiddles with the stimulus checks but gives Israel $9bn to create more conflict and impoverish us all even faster.
The State Department said it doesn’t endorse Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, but doesn’t oppose it.
LOL! That’s our Dems! Always one finger in the air to see which way the political winds blow. A more compromised gang of crooks one cannot find. Ahh, the art of equivocation at its finest.
I can tell this is going to take a quite a high number of US body bags to resolve, little numbers get swept under the rug and added to the dust pile.
Israel will proudly stand up to Iran and fight to the last American.
Not the last one, I use um as pawns so a couples got to go before me.
Time to give Bidet the Nobble Piece Prize like his controller Barack Hussein Obama.
“Withdrawing from the region is now out of the question – ”
The End Game is afoot.
“Meanwhile in Western Daraa, the rebel leaders submitted to Damascus, likely fearing the upcoming chaos and wanting to choose a side.”
Western Daraa is the border with Israel. That wire fence divides mountain territory where the Druze live; and have lived for centuries under one regime or another (at one time they even ruled Syria). The Druze are a canny people, always totally loyal to the winning side.
Druze who live on the Israeli side of that wire fence are loyal to Israel, famously loyal, so they are even allowed to serve in the Israeli Army. Israel rewards their loyalty by arming and supporting ISIS who kill Druze as heretics.
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” — Dale Carnegie
Lol there was never any withdrawing to begin with that was just a smoke and mirror game hoping to boast Trump’s re-election chances, they want those bases there forever, so they can spy on Russia and China a;long with the C.I.A. instigating trouble like they did in Chechnya the only way they will ever leave is if like in Nam they are driven out.!!!
And that will definitely happen if at least a medium-scale conflict breaks up.
Isn’t it about time Joe Biden was impeached for being a ‘global terrorist’?