|
Why Trump’s Syria 'Surge' Will Fail
By Ron Paul
March 14,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Last
week President Trump significantly escalated the US
military presence in Syria, sending some 400 Marines
to the ISIS-controlled Raqqa, and several dozen Army
Rangers to the contested area around Manbij.
According to press reports he will also station some
2,500 more US troops in Kuwait to be used as he
wishes in Iraq and Syria.
Not only is it illegal under
international law to send troops into another
country without permission, it is also against US
law for President Trump to take the country to war
without a declaration. But not only is Trump’s first
big war illegal: it is doomed to failure because it
makes no sense.
President Trump says the purpose of
the escalation is to defeat ISIS in Raqqa, its
headquarters in Syria. However the Syrian Army with
its allies Russia and Iran are already close to
defeating ISIS in Syria. Why must the US military be
sent in when the Syrian army is already winning?
Does Trump wish to occupy eastern Syria and put a
Washington-backed rebel government in charge? Has
anyone told President Trump what that would to cost
in dollars and lives — including American lives? How
would this US-backed rebel government respond to the
approach of a Syrian army backed up by the Russian
military?
Is Trump planning on handing eastern
Syria over to the Kurds, who have been doing much of
the fighting in the area? How does he think
NATO-ally Turkey would take a de facto Kurdistan
carved out of Syria with its eyes on
Kurdish-inhabited southern Turkey?
And besides, by what rights would
Washington carve up Syria or any other country?
Or is Trump going to give up on the
US policy of “regime change” and hand conquered
eastern Syria back to Assad? If that is the case,
why waste American lives and money if the Syrians
and their allies are already doing the job?
Candidate Trump even said he was perfectly happy
with Russia and Syria getting rid of ISIS. If US
policy is shifting toward accepting an Assad
victory, it could be achieved by ending arms
supplies to the rebels and getting out of the way.
It does not appear that President
Trump or his advisors have thought through what
happens next if the US military takes possession of
Raqqa, Syria. What is the endgame? Maybe the neocons
told him it would be a “cakewalk” as they promised
before the 2003 Iraq invasion.
|
Break
Free From The Matrix
|
Part of the problem is that President
Trump’s advisors believe the myth that the US
“surge” in Iraq and Afghanistan was a great success
and repeating it would being the victory that eluded
Obama with his reliance of drones and proxy military
forces. A big show of US military force on the
ground — like the 100,000 sent to Afghanistan by
Obama in 2009 — is what is needed in Syria, these
experts argue. Rarely is it asked that if the surge
worked so well why are Afghanistan and Iraq still a
disaster?
President Trump’s escalation in Syria
is doomed to failure. He is being drawn into a
quagmire by the neocons that will destroy scores of
lives, cost us a fortune, and may well ruin his
presidency. He must de-escalate immediately before
it is too late.
Ron Paul is a
former U.S. congressman from Texas. This article
originally appeared at the Ron
Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
The
views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing
House.
|
