“We’re on the two-yard line,” one U.S. special forces commander told NBC News. “We’re that close and now it’s coming apart.”
KOBANI, Syria — The secret military base here is the epicenter of a four-year-old U.S.-led war against the Islamic State that American commanders say has succeeded in killing nearly 65,000 fighters.
But just as the terrorist group looks to be on the brink of defeat, senior officials worry that their efforts will be wasted.
Some U.S. commanders say what they perceive as a lack of guidance from the White House — which sent Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster packing in a 9-day span — is threatening their mission to destroy ISIS. Cracks are showing in America's alliance with the Kurds of northern Syria, who question whether they can rely on the U.S. under President Donald Trump.
"We’re on the two-yard line. We could literally fall into the end zone. We’re that close to total victory, to wiping out the ISIS caliphate in Syria,” one U.S. special forces commander told NBC News. “We’re that close and now it’s coming apart.”
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WNU Editor: ISIS in Syria was defeated because of the U.S. - Kurd alliance. But with the Kurds now fighting the Turks .... the alliance that has been battling ISIS is now at risk of falling apart .... US Military Alliance in Syria Could Fall Apart as Turkey Fights Its Own War on 'Terror' (Newsweek). Doubly so if this gets out of hand .... US, Turkey on collision course in Syria's Manbij (DW).
2 comments:
Considering Turkey was doing business with ISIS and providing medical facilities for their wounded, Turkey's northern invasions might be intended, in part, to take some pressure off the remnants. By the way were is Baghdadi? ISIS only needs a small surviving group of their leadership to re-metastasize.
"ISIS in Syria was defeated because of the U.S. - Kurd alliance." THis is true only on the east side of the Euphrates River. On the west side of the river ISIS was defeated by a reconstructed Syrian army heavily backed by the Russian military. The problem is that the US also has a geopolitical agenda that violates the principles of the UN charter, particularly that dealing with national sovereignty. Now that Trump has stated his intention to pull US forces out of Syria that may change.
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