Small Wars Journal

US Military Commanders 'Pissed Off' About Mission Creep in Syria

Sun, 09/18/2016 - 12:51pm

U.S. Military Commanders 'Pissed Off' About Mission Creep in Syria by Andrew Tilghman, Military Times

The deal for U.S. military cooperation with Russia would expand the current mission in Syria far beyond its exclusive focus on the Islamic State group. 

And the Pentagon is not happy about it. 

The agreement forged by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart could, for the first time, broaden the American-led air campaign’s target list to include al Nusra, the notorious al Qaida-linked group that is a major actor in the multi-sided Syrian civil war. Until now, the two-year-old U.S. air campaign in Syria has been limited to ISIS. 

“This could be massive mission creep,” said Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “The military is pissed off because they’re being asked to do two jobs now. They were asked to do one job, which is kill ISIS. Now John Kerry is asking them to do another job, which is cooperate with Russia and kill al Nusra.” 

The cease-fire deal reached Sept. 9 calls for the two former Cold War rivals to set up a joint facility for sharing intelligence and coordinating airstrikes against ISIS and al Nusra. The key requirement is adherence to a seven-day cease fire that calls on the Syrian regime and Russia to halt attacks around the city of Alleppo, which has experienced some of the war's most horrific violence, and allow for sustained delivery of humanitarian aid. 

The details remain unclear. Some U.S. military officials are suggesting that the "cooperation" between the U.S. and Russia may be narrowly defined to involve only sharing intelligence with the Russians and deconflicting air space rather than expanding the target list for U.S. aircraft…

Read on.

Comments

Write about foreign policy going from bad to worse to right out the window.
Obama's original position was to limit Russian deliveries to Assad and hope the rebels would develop into an Arab Spring, which was a misnomer and intel fail from the git go.
Incredibly everyone is over looking the fact that only a few months ago Russia announced it was removing its Air Force, which it has not and in fact is upgrading Assad's decrepit Air Force.
Kerry is following the Russians directions it would seem at every turn. Even when we had the fleet posted to impact on Assad's ability to sustain the fight the Russian Navies appearance over the horizon must have resulted in frantic calls from State to get our fleet out of the region.
The greatest mystery of all is how did we go from parrying with Russia wanting Assad's removal to becoming their lackey?
There might be some leeway to credit Obama with pressing Assad's regime to dismantle some if not most of his WMD production.

If I wasn't alive to witness this mess I wouldn't believe it.

I also don't know if even in these forums if it is taboo or Islamophobic to mention Iran is fulfilling its Revolutionary Islamic radical dream of extending its direct influence from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus to Beirut and is now positioned with Hezballah to Israel more than ever before. While Obama and Congress were dithering over a 32 to 35 billion aid packet for Israel over the next 10 years there are reports he has secretly channeled 33 billion or more to Iran since 2014. And not for ransoms of SEALs that aren't ransoms.

Hopefully the next President will have an explainable foreign policy and a genuine respect for American power and not simply lip service. I have this image of Kerry being faced with a tough decision in Syria and scratching his head then praying, "What would Putin do?"