The Men With No Name
The Economist reports that Syria is looking increasingly like a movie saloon fight where one man swings at another, hits a third provoking a response from a fourth. “The bloodshed in Syria has taken a nasty turn, as Syrian rebels fighting against Bashar Assad’s regime clash with their Kurdish compatriots. Worries of an ethnic war between Syria’s Arabs and its 3m-odd Kurds have increased. Kurds on both sides of the border are pointing the finger of blame at the government of Turkey.”
The trouble began on November 8th when Syrian rebels attacked a small group of Syrian soldiers loyal to Mr Assad in Ras al-Ayn, a town close to the border with Turkey. Despite being bombed by the Syrian air force, the rebels took the town, which lies just across the border from the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar.
Syria’s best armed and most powerful Kurdish group, the Syrian Democratic Union Party (known by its Kurdish initials, PYD), which controls the Kurdish districts of Ras al-Ayn, says it feared retaliation from the Assad forces if it was seen to connive at their expulsion, so it asked the Syrian rebels, who are said to have been Salafists, to leave. When they refused, the ensuing battle left at least five Kurds and 18 rebels dead. Thousands of angry Kurds are said to be heading for Ras al-Ayn to offer support to their kinsfolk.
In such an atmosphere of mistrust things can be misinterpreted. Meanwhile Iran has warned Turkey not to deploy Patriot missiles, “as fears grow of the Syrian civil war spilling across frontiers.”
Syria has called Turkey’s request for the Patriot missiles “provocative”, and Russia said the move could increase risks in the conflict …
Turkey’s missile request may have riled Damascus because it could be seen as a first step toward implementing a no-fly zone over Syrian airspace.
Syrian rebels have been requesting a no-fly zone to help them hold territory against a government with overwhelming firepower from the air, but most foreign governments are reluctant to get sucked into the conflict.
Turkey fears security on its border may crumble as the Syrian army fights harder against the rebels, some of whom have enjoyed sanctuary in Turkey.
In other news the Chechens have joined the fight. “International Sunni Islamists are flocking to Syria in increasing numbers.” The Guardian reports that “Jihadi veterans of Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan” are operating in Syria now. It describes units so ethnically diverse that its commander has to give orders in a babel of languages.
Abu Omar gave an order in Arabic, which was translated into a babble of different languages – Chechen, Tajik, Turkish, French, Saudi dialect, Urdu – and the men retreated in orderly single file, picking their way between piles of smouldering rubbish and twisted plastic bottles toward a house behind the front line where other fighters had gathered.
Their Syrian handler stood alone in the street clutching two radios: one blared in Chechen and the other in Arabic. Two men volunteered to stay and try to fetch the young injured man.
The fighters sat outside the house in the shade of the trees, clutching their guns and discussing the war. Among them was a thin Saudi, dressed in a dirty black T-shirt and a prayer cap, who conversed in perfect English with a Turk sitting next to him. He had arrived the week before and was curious about how the jihad was being reported abroad.
Was he “curious about how the jihad was being reported abroad”? He would have been surprised to learn that American readers thought it was all about a reaction to a YouTube video and that the American ambassador to the UN and the Secretary of State were adamant on the point, at least until recently.
Meanwhile the Washington Post reports on the struggle over who will be named the new Drone Czar, a mission that is now rivaling the CIA’s former task of intelligence gathering. Dianne Feinstein is increasingly worried the agency has now been sidetracked into the assassination business.
“I think this is the time for transition,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview. Counterterrorism will remain the agency’s top priority, Feinstein said, but the recent attack on U.S. compounds in Libya and mounting concerns about cyber conflicts underscore other vulnerabilities.
“We have to strengthen human intelligence in key areas,” Feinstein said, “and transition from the kind of Pakistan-Afghanistan intelligence gathering” that has dominated the agency’s agenda since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Former agency officials, including those who worked in counterterrorism, cited similar concerns over the need for a balance between paramilitary operations and intelligence collection and analysis.
“As much as there remains a terrorism threat, that can’t be the preoccupation of the director of CIA 99 percent of the time anymore,” said Bruce Riedel, a former agency analyst and adviser to Obama. The fundamental question for Obama, Riedel said, is: “Should the agency be looking to be the principal player in a global drone war versus its more traditional role as the principal collector and analyst of foreign intelligence?”
It’s turned into the Air Force. Well maybe this is what happens when the normal processes of war, diplomacy and intelligence are subverted and put to uses for which they are not intended, as when “war” is abolished by the simple expedient of banishing the military to Central Asia and turning the State Department and the CIA into instruments of kinetic military action. When you can’t use the Air Force because the anti-war Left objects, then you the use the CIA. And to engage in espionage you turn consulates abroad into intelligence stations. What could go wrong?
Then you get neither war, nor diplomacy nor intelligence. But who needs them, when you’re too smart for that.
However the State Department is at least playing the role of the saloon piano player to the hilt. It has sent “Andrew W.K. will head to the Middle East on behalf of the State Department to promote peace … as a Cultural Ambassador he will travel to Bahrain next month and visit elementary schools, the University of Bahrain, and music venues “all while promoting partying and world peace.”
That ought to liven things up.
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Well Wretchard, this can be a good opportunity for the US, IF the Obama administration will seize it.
As for Turkey, they have already demonstrated by their actions in the secnd Gulf war that they do not value American friendship and will not support American military action in the region ( I well remember when Turkey declined to allow right of passage for a much needed mech division to help in the Iraq war – the effect of this was to force the US to attack with a smaller force than what was needed and wanted, US forces correspondingly suffered larger than necessary casualties). So, let the Turks take care of themselves without American help – it’s what they want.
As for Syria, well, as we see in Egypt, Arab Democracy is not an option. The choices are: support the relatively secular, corrupt, fascist dictatorship of the Assads, well known to be an ally of Iran, OR, support the Islamic fascism ofthe Muslum brotherhood and their new allies the chechens, who are most notable for such things as the Beslen atrocity in Russia. The proper American policy should be to borrow a page from Cardianl Richelieu’s book: If Assad is winning, help the Brotherhood. If the Brotherhood is winning, help Assad. In that manner, keep the pot boiling and let them kill as many as possible.
As for the Kurds, well, if self-determination is good for the Palestinians then self-determination is equally good for the Kurds. By all means, let the Kurds of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran form an independent Kurdistan. Why not? After all, all those states agree Israel should give up territory for the Palestinians, so by that precedent, let them give up territory for the Kurds. Sauce for the goose, you know.
Meanwhile the Washington Post reports on the struggle over who will be named the new Drone Czar.
It should be turned over to General Peckem in Special Services, because if assassination is not a special service then what is?
And now for a brief note from our sponsors.
It seems that, in our absence upon the world stage, leading from behind has gotten us nothing but shyte upon our shiny boots.
I too believe that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. So let us take a gander over in fractious Kurdistan/Syria/Palestine/Finklestien or was it Finklestein. Just kidding folks.
Back to your regular programming. Thanks! From Dewey, Peckem and How!
I can only hope that Andrew W.K. will be given the full Benghazi.
“By all means, let the Kurds of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran form an independent Kurdistan.”
But,but, but,,,,,but Battle of the Py that would piss off our would be sorta kinda allies Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria , Russia and probably the MB,
– sounds like a plan to me!
” By all means, let the Kurds of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran form an independent Kurdistan. Why not? After all, all those states agree Israel should give up territory for the Palestinians, so by that precedent, let them give up territory for the Kurds. Sauce for the goose, you know.”
Excellent suggestion. A lot of the resistance to allowing the US to use the norther route into Iraq had to do with our support of the Kurds in northern Iraq. The Kurds, even though their social policies are as bad as the rest of Muslims, may be our only friends in the middle east besides Israel.
So, decades after it was thoroughly discredited in the minds of the Left, the infamous Domino Theory is found to be applicable after all, except in the Middle East rather than SE Asia.
Except it’s worse, now. It’s a two layer stack of dominos built atop a house of cards on a shaky card table sitting on the deck of the Titanic.
I fear I’m at a loss for words
Who shall I back, the Turks or Kurds
The Chechens now are not nice guys
And Assad should have stuck to eyes
Egyptians want to blast the Sphinx
It’s dangerous for one who thinks
That finding partners in this fight
Will turn out easy, turn out right
But Obie’s running things right now
And searching for to find out how
To smile and use the press to spin
That we have helped the last man win
That makes us friends each wise and kind
That comes from leading from behind
“And to engage in espionage you turn consulates abroad into intelligence stations”
This is nothing new. The USN AGERs USS Pueblo and USS Liberty were Navy vessels turned into intelligence stations, albeit mobile ones. Both ships pretty much met the same fate as the Benghazi consulate, with fatalities and a delayed, lacking response with resultant finger-pointing within the Beltway.
Personal opinion is that all three were bastard projects: not well-received by, and likely forced upon, the higher-ups in the respective Departments, viewed by the Departments as deviation from their “true mission”, and thus left for the wolves when the attacks came.
I wonder if things would have been any different for a Romney administration. I like to think so, but Middle East dynamics are bad and getting worse. The parable of the scorpion and the frog is instructive. And accurate.
In the Wild West they didn’t actually put the hatchet faced women in charge. It took the Progressive Movement to start us down that road too. It is amazing how many bad ideas can be traced to a narrow source.
The problem with Kurdistan is that the Kurds are a minority in most of the disputed districts. Other local minorities, Arabs Turkmen Assyrians Georgians Azeris etc. etc. etc. compete with them. On balance I think that breaking the legacy empires of Iran Turkey Syria and Iraq into smaller units may be worth trying but is the US up to that level of assertiveness? Remember also that Joe Biden advocated something like this, so take a long walk around the block before endorsing the idea.
I recommend that everybody read the latest Austin Bay column at mysa.com.
The Alawite minority of Assad is not going to stop because they fear they will all be slaughtered if they do. They have good reason to so fear.
So do all other elements of the Syrian civil war.
I see no way to stop all the killing in Syria without invading and occupying
that country. Not a practical matter at this time and not under the premises of
the encumbrance.
“…this can be a good opportunity for the US, IF the Obama administration will seize it.”
Um, you are kidding, right? About that second part, at least, right?
Yeahhhhh….. you’re just kidding.
Heh. Ya had me there for a sec.
Hey, Dave, I went looking for that Austin Bay column, but, oddly enough, the entire Minnesota Youth Soccer Association doesn’t seem to have a hint of it. I am most interested in what those blond midwestern soccer kids think about the Alawites.
In fact, Turkey is so worried that it is even talking (well, a bit) to the Zionist Terrorist State (Inc.)
(And those Jews always want to be loved so much….)
File under: But hit us again!! Please!!!
The Air Force has been trying to wrest supreme control of UAV’s from the beginning. They have had a major issue with the Army deploying them since the early days of Iraq and before. It has echoes of the AF versus the Army Air Corp with probably the same outcome. UAVs will get bigger and more expensive until they will have to fly at stratospheric altitudes to avoid being shot down, being worth 100’s of millions a piece. Close air support will be left wanting. Eventually top AF brass will realize the advantage of putting pilots on board to control targeting and real-times systems.
#9. Pappy
“Personal opinion is that all three were bastard projects: not well-received by, and likely forced upon, the higher-ups in the respective Departments, viewed by the Departments as deviation from their “true mission”, and thus left for the wolves when the attacks came.”
Regarding the Liberty and Pueblo, the blame was placed on the WWMCCS aka Wimex, the (at the time newfangled) computerized military communications system. The postmortem congressional hearings in 1971 revealed that the Liberty was ordered four times to move away from Sinai (6th fleet command having assured Israel that we had no ships in the area). However, some of the messages were rerouted to the Pacific, and others didn’t get transmitted until the attack was over.
The Pueblo also called for help and the messages were misrouted and delayed. Same for a Navy EC-121 shot down by North Korea in 1969.
Congress eventually threw money at the problem, DOD and NORAD hooked up more and faster computers to their networks…and we got the internet.
But re Benghazi there are no excuses. They had real time drone and satellite feeds. They had intel and warnings from the ambassador himself. There were no communications failures to blame, only a failure of leadership.