Things are so much worse than this article reports that I wonder why The
Militant even bothered. The US is supporting troops which oppose each other in
Syria. Since Trump's presidency, the rules of engagement have changed in Iraq
and Syria. The US is responsible for an air attack in Mossel in which more than
200 civilians were killed. Turkey is becoming an autocracy. Trump is apparently
assisting it to do so. We are creating incredible numbers of refugees, but
Europe is closing its doors to them and the US has never taken its fair share,
and now, will take none at all.
Miriam
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From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey ;
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Sent: Monday, March 27, 2017 10:55 AM
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Subject: [blind-democracy] Washington sends troops to Syria, moves to, outflank
rivals
http://themilitant.com/2017/8113/811303.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 13 April 3, 2017
(front page)
Washington sends troops to Syria, moves to
outflank rivals
BY PATRICIA MARSHALL
Raqqa, Syria, is increasingly the focus of competing capitalist powers seeking
to defend their economic and political interests in the Middle East today. The
military forces of Washington, allied with the Syrian Democratic Forces — Arab
fighters opposed to the dictatorial Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and their
Kurdish People’s Protection Units
(YPG) allies; Damascus, Moscow, and Tehran, with its allied Hezbollah and
Shiite militias; and Ankara are all jockeying for position to take the city.
Washington and its allies are the closest. The 50,000-strong Kurdish-led SDF,
backed by U.S. troops and air power, is now within six miles of Raqqa, the
self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State. Washington’s goal in reaching
Raqqa first — at the same time as U.S. forces and their Iraqi army allies are
moving to retake Mosul — is to push out Islamic State and establish a strong
military and political base of operations across the two countries.
The propertied rulers in the U.S. are escalating their military firepower. The
Pentagon is sending substantial reinforcements of U.S.
troops to Syria, drawn from the nearly 5,000 Marines and paratroopers now being
deployed to Kuwait. These troops would join Washington’s warplanes, attack
helicopters, artillery and some 1,000 Marines, Rangers and special operations
forces already operating alongside the SDF.
Though President Donald Trump won election by promising to keep the U.S.
out of foreign wars, as well as campaigning in the name of jobs and economic
gains for working people, his administration has put forward a new draft budget
that would sharply increase military spending by $52 billion this year alone.
Iranian-backed forces and troops from the Assad regime are also converging on
Raqqa. And Ankara and their Free Syrian Army forces are trying to find a way to
elbow in on the fight.
In an interview posted on Syria’s state news agency SANA March 11, Assad
described Washington’s troops in Syria as “invaders.”
On March 17, Israeli warplanes crossed Syrian airspace to bomb a weapons convoy
for Hezbollah forces. The Assad regime fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israel’s
jets. The Israeli military shot down one of the Syrian missiles and denied
Syrian army claims that it had shot down an Israeli jet. Debris was reported in
Jordan, 12 miles from the Israeli and Syrian borders.
Ankara seeks to bolster influence
Ankara, which has dropped its demand that Assad step down, views the Kurds as
its biggest problem. There are some 30 million Kurds divided between Syria,
Turkey, Iraq and Iran — the largest nationality without its own homeland in the
world.
Ankara’s goal is to prevent the YPG from linking the 20,000 square miles of
Syrian territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border with the fight by
Kurds in Turkey for autonomy.
Ankara invaded Syria last year, seeking to prevent Kurds in cantons they
control in the northeastern and northwestern parts of the country from uniting.
Working with Free Syrian Army troops, Turkish forces were seeking to take
Manbij, some 70 miles from Raqqa.
Moscow brokered a deal between the YPG and their Syrian allies in Manbij for
Assad regime troops to occupy nearby towns. And Washington sent troops to
Manbij as a signal to Ankara to keep out.
Turkey is the third largest country in NATO, with a population of 79 million
and close to half a million military personnel. It shares Incirlik Air Base
with U.S. military forces, who control “a significant number of nuclear
weapons” there.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a referendum April
16 to concentrate more power in his hands. It would make permanent many of the
regime’s emergency powers since an attempted military coup last year. Since
then some 110,000 civil servants have been fired and over
37,000 people arrested.
Erdogan sent government ministers to Europe to try and rally a big vote from
the millions of Turks living there, where support for his regime is greater
than inside Turkey. This is especially true in Turkey’s Kurdish regions, where
opposition to Erdogan is widespread.
The Dutch government took the unprecedented step of blocking two Turkish
ministers from entering the country. Similar meetings were prevented in
Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. Erdogan then called the governments of
Germany and the Netherlands fascist and Nazi-like.
This unprecedented breakdown of normal capitalist diplomatic relations can
actually work in Erdogan’s favor, stoking a higher turnout from nationalist
forces angered by the European regimes’ treatment of Turkish government
representatives.
Workers across Turkey are being battered by the consequences of the world
capitalist economic crisis. Youth unemployment is running at 21 percent. And in
a December report that many agree understates the real extent of the carnage,
the Confederation of Merchants and Craftsmen said over 6,000 workers have been
killed on the job in the last five years.
Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the underlying issues of Kurdish
oppression and working-class politics will not go away in a region wracked with
war.
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