Tim Eaton, BBC/Chatham House: Should there be a no-fly zone over Syria?
US Secretary of State John Kerry last week reportedly instructed his staff to revisit plans for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria.
Influential figures such as former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have long supported the establishment of a no-fly zone, but the White House has been reticent.
Mr Kerry's comments now revive one of the longest-running policy debates of the Syrian civil war, and also one of the most opaque.
Update: Obama up against growing support for a no-fly zone in Syria (CBS)
WNU Editor: Any proposition for a no-fly zone in Syria is DOA. But there are some who are still pushing for this no-fly zone .... UK should 'enforce Syria no-fly zone even if Russia vetoes UN resolution' (The Guardian) .... even though Russia has made it very clear that it they will not respect this zone.
7 comments:
A no fly zone would seem to be a stupid idea that never should have been proposed in the first place. Any attempts to enforce this would only lead to US pilots and planes being shot down by the superior Russian air force. Unfortunately some people just never learn. While we might want a different outcome, its best not to ignore reality when setting policy or personal goals.
Superior russian airforce. ? lol just lol.
Every conflict post vietnam their military hardware has been shown up for the overated junk that is at best a generation behind its western equivalent.
From iraq to serbia to ukraine to israel, all overated.
Their military advisers are stuck in 1960 and their pilots have no where near the flight time or combat experience of american pilots.
Please if syria erupts into a hot wat between east and west it will be a ratio of at least 10 to 1 in the wests favor ( not bad since it was 90 to 1 not so long ago)
fazman,
Not funny at all. Assuming this hardware you refer to is superior much of it if not all of it is likely to become very expensive paperweights once they are hit with Russian cyber attacks.
There have been a number of articles written on these things. Very respectfully I think many of them overestimate any hardware edges the United States has while underestimating Russian cyber war capabilities.
Additionally there is the Russian nuclear arsenal and Russian space based weapons that will have to be contended with. As such, I don't think the US stands up well to either Russia or China in war scenario. Policy makers need to act accordingly. I've suggested a number of things that could be done in this area.
In any event, I see nothing in Syria worth risking conflict with Russia over. There are no friends in this region we can support. Except for Israel they are all enemies.
I agree with syria is not worth it, but the nuclear arsenal is a non issue as the mad doctrine still applies.
Cyberwarefare is a relevant point but that would have little impact in the field ad relative to airpower.
I would be concerned more about the americans ability to jam all communications on the battlefield.
Also take out the airfields and where di these russian aircraft operate from, thanks to aircraft carrier battlegroups and turkish bases the cialition as many options .
All the best friend☺
All of this leads to nuclear war. It's to late to fart around with no fly zones as the Russians have de facto established one. They've upped the ante and too many big comfy couches will be upset pushing a checker in their faces.
So "we" will revert to type. Santa Claus is coming to Jihaditown.
Ha you have my sense of humour. , if only mcain was president arrrhhhhh
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