Article LinkFollowing the U.S. withdrawal from Syria last week and strong bipartisan backlash, as outlined in a below post, the U.S. has called for a cease-fire in northeastern Syria. Unsurprisingly, Turkish President Erdogan rejected the calls, claiming "Nobody can stop us." President Trump has also issued sanctions on senior Turkish officials over the matter.
Along with this, as U.S. troops vacated northeastern Syria, they destroyed old military bases and took weapons and vehicles as to render them useless militarily. However, Russian forces have begun to move into the vacated U.S. bases, and have discovered many supplies still left over, including food, construction equipment, and electronics.
Questions:
1) What additional steps can the U.S. take to encourage a cease-fire, now that sanctions have been shown (who would have thought) to be ineffective?
2) Could the U.S. be unintentionally helping ISIS by leaving supplies behind?
3) How will diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Turkey play out following this fiasco?
I think the US likely should hold more sanctions on Turkey in case of invasion to prevent further invasion. The US indeed can be helping ISIS by leaving supplies behind, as these supplies are still materials that can be used by Turkey, Given the nature of the US Turkey relationship, Turkey likely will remain a solid ally of the US in the middle east, however, it is up to the US to secure peace between turks and kurds.
ReplyDeleteI think this fiasco marks an irreversible cooling in US-Turkey relations, at least until Erdogan is out of office and maybe for the foreseeable future. Because Turkey and the US have only ever been on neutral terms, Russia has already taken advantage of the US vacancy to negotiate with Turkey. Though leaving supplies for ISIS is an issue, the much bigger concern here is Russia. As it is now they stand to benefit from a closer relationship with Turkey, which spells eventual disaster for the US.
ReplyDeleteOn the Second Question, the United States is absolutely helping ISIS by leaving Syria. It opens a power vacuum in the nation that the terror group can easily fill. It is also an excellent source of propaganda since they can use it to demonstrate that the USA can suddenly leave its allies out in the rain. This situation will also strain already souring relations between the USA and Turkey, since Trump is pushing back against Turkey.
ReplyDeleteI am not an expert on foreign affairs, but there are still some simple, easily observable actions that could be taken to encourage a cease-fire. The best option in my opinion is to have US troops protecting the Kurds, acting as they previously were in Syria. Turkey has shown its genocidal behavior in the past, with the current state denying the Armenian genocide even, and that cannot be allowed to happen again. Another possible way to achieve a cease-fire would be to threaten Turkey’s NATO membership. Turkey is an important member of NATO, but threatening to remove them could potentially be an effective deterrent. Undoubtedly, this event will change relations between the US and Turkey. Even if the President is fine with their actions and does not take action against them, the American public and Congress have taken strong action condemning Turkey. This could be a sign of troubled international relations for years to come if Turkey holds steadfast in their violent means.
ReplyDelete