“The US should have nothing to do with Syria, DO NOT GET INVOLVED”
This is what Trump declared last week amidst unfolding crisis in the Middle Eastern nation. Many GOP supporters threw weight behind this declaration as it falls in line with Trump’s America First slogan.
From a layman American’s point of view, the fall of Moscow-backed Assad regime in Syria looks like an alien affair. The Western media is celebrating it, CNN is blasting celebratory shots from the ground and it looks like a wave of freedom has taken over the region.
The rebel offensive led by US-backed HTS Islamist group has received support from the West. It’s being reported that the UK might lift sanctions on some of these groups, which it currently labels as terrorists and extremists.
That’s a narrative that the US media has been trying to sell over the past 10 days, a narrative that is flawed as well as short-sighted.
The fact of the matter is that if US turns a blind eye towards developments in Syria, it can lead to a revival of the ISIS, which is the last thing that the Trump administration would want to happen under its watch.
And remember, the ISIS 2.0 won’t be a Syrian problem alone, it will be equally threatening for all American citizens living abroad, especially in Middle Eastern regions and even inside the US given the number of Islamists the US has imported through open borders over the past four years of Joe Biden.
The ongoing crisis in Syria has given Turkey and its bellicose president Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan another opportunity to move ahead with his expansionist agenda. In a recent move, Erdogan has declared it will invade Syria and ramp up the offensive against Kurds. It is to be noted that the Kurds and their Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) currently govern autonomous administration in northeastern Syria called Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The SDF is the same group that allied with the US to defeat the ISIS. The SDF are basically American allies in the region.
Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) is now launching offensive against the SDF in northern Syria. In simple words, Turkey is launching a direct assault on American allies here. Ankara sees the SDF as an extension of Turkey’s Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK, an armed group that has been fighting the Turkish state for four decades. The SDF currently boasts 100,000 fighters and they govern over 25 per cent of Syria’s territory. Turkey now wants to take control of that region.
As Turkey, its Syrian National Army and the HTS group launch full-throttle offensive against the SDF, these American allies are now finding themselves abandoned and exposed. The SDF have already vacated the crucial town of Deir Ezzor, near the Iraqi border, which it had occupied in recent days. Last week the SNA moved to capture the SDF-held town of Manbij, sparking vicious fighting.
You see, the SDF are fast losing grounds to the Turkey-backed group. Now, here’s why it’s concerning for the US. With both Moscow and SDF getting weaker in Syria and Islamist groups increasingly gaining prominence, there are high chances that the ISIS may regroup and seek revival. The HTS group itself is a Sunni Islamist former affiliate of al-Qaeda. The players now being hailed as hero in US media are actually the dreaded villains of the history.
Here, Trump can’t just turn a blind eye to the ongoing Turkish offensive against the Kurds forces as it risks revival of the ISIS. To keep Americans safe, both overseas and inside the country, the Trump administration needs to take the threat of ISIS seriously and refrain from leaving the Kurds fending for themselves.