Small Wars Journal

American and Russian Militaries Don’t Agree About Much in Syria

Sun, 11/29/2015 - 5:04am

American and Russian Militaries Don’t Agree About Much in Syria by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

… Beneath public presidential statements and diplomatic exchanges, the U.S. and Russian militaries have lobbed a steady stream of verbal brickbats at each other since Russian operations in Syria began on Sept. 30. They have repeatedly criticized each other’s tactics, munitions and goals.

More important, charges of outright lying about what each side is doing illustrate the difficulties of Russia and the United States ever cooperating in operations against the Islamic State. That objective seems even further away this week after the shootdown of a Russian aircraft by coalition-member Turkey.

The U.S. military says that Russia has consistently exaggerated both its activities and successes in Syria, and that the vast majority of its attacks have not even been aimed at the Islamic State but have targeted coalition-backed opponents of its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad…

Read on.