The Limits Of The War In Syria

The deployment of U.S. troops in Syria injects new worries into a region divided by warring  factions and different international geopolitical interests. Given the U.S. history in this type of conflicts, it’s inevitable to fear that what begins with a group of military consultants and specialized operatives will lead to a bigger intervention with no way out.

The Syria crisis started with the “Arab spring,” but unlike Libya and Egypt, the popular uprising did not overthrew dictator Bashar Al-Assad. Instead, it led to a bloody repression and civil war. Meanwhile, in north west Syria, Sunni Islamic extremists proclaimed a Caliphate in Syrian and Iraqi land that threatens both the Damascus and Bagdad regimes.

Since the beginning, the Obama administration supported the most moderate rebels and advocated for the overthrow of Al-Assad. The stalemate of the conflict, partly because of the White House’s doubts, led Vladimir Putin to come out in defense of Al-Assad, reviving the strategic alliance between the Soviet Unión and Syria during the Cold War, and contradicting Washington’s wishes to oust the Syrian leader. Then there is the Shi’a-Sunni conflict that has Iran and Iraq in one side, an ISIS and Saudi Arabia on the other.

Meanwhile, millions of Syrians are fleeing the war, thus creating an humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. The internationalization of the conflict is a tragedy for its civilian population, which once again have become pawns on a chess game between Moscow and Washington, as well as prey of religious fanatics.

The United States and Russia have already reached an agreement on coordinating airspace over Syria, in order to avoid collisions between their bombers. Now the Kurds are receiving the Washington advisers in their war with ISIS, while the Iranians are helping Al-Assad along with Russia. This is a fight over many fronts, and its combatants have different and intersecting interests in mind, creating one of the world’s most dangerous scenarios.

We should be clear on what are the limits of the U.S. action, and about the possibility of troops being captured by ISIS, with what that would entail. The goal is to combat Islamic extremism, maintain geopolitical presence and, fundamentally, not fall into a spiral of events that would stall those efforts.