Assad isn’t the threat to the other minorities. He’s been their protector. It’s the Jihadists we supported who are. As for the Kurds, Turkey is the real threat to them, and they’re supposedly our allies. Erdogan’s worse than Assad.
None of it’s enough for us to be there. Our job was to destroy ISIS. Time to declare victory and go home.
I think Trumps just letting it play out and we have little to do with any of it pretty much. Interesting that Erdogan, Rouhanni and Putin are again meeting in Sochi developing the agreements...neithr Assad nor any US representative there.
Now why should Erdogan have anything to do with settling these agreements? Obvious he’s been routing the Jihadists through Turkey from the get go.....and they know it or he wouldn’t be there.
To All: We are I n the Middle East whether we like it or not. The Brits left in the late 1940’s and only returned to help capture the Suez Canal (with the French), when Nasser illegally seized and closed them. They were vital shipping lanes for everyone and denying them to NATO and SEATO forces would have helped the Soviets to no end.
The threats to both peace and for war now in the Middle East are respectively, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Hezbollah and Syria, in descending order.
Russia has a military and economic alliance with Iran (who controls the Republican Guard in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and possibly Yemen. Syria has let the Russians have back their old bases in Latakia and other ports, plus airfields which extend the Bear’s reach into the whole Arabian peninsula, oil fields, ports and infiltration routes.
Don’t forget that Iran is also involved in Afghanistan, controls parts of Iraq (if not its government), and could influence Pakistan for the worst.
Lebanon is basically an Iranian province, with Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, possibly ISIS, and the Republican Guard all operating there against the Kurds, the Islamic state and affiliates, other minorities, and of course, Israel and Yemen. Jordan is next on their hit-list, aided by the Palestinians of Fatah and Hamas. So is Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Dubai, Qatar, Oman, etc.
In geo-strategic terms, if the US is “out” of the Middle East, it becomes a Soviet-Iranian Empire with all the above listed countries as part of it, a new “Ottoman”, “Soviet”, and/or “Persian Empire”, or any combination thereof.
With the loss of that area, the Eastern Mediterranean becomes a Russian/Soviet lake, thus threatening Crete, Cyprus, etc.
Turkey is another regional threat to any nation on its borders, as well as against the ethnic Kurds inside of it as well as in Iraq and Syria (where they already were attacked).
Obama literally surrendered the area to Iran, Syria and Russia. Trump is trying to stabilize the area, helping our friends and common interest partners keep the Bear out, the Turks out, and esp. the Iranians, out.
This is no time for isolationist strategies. They never worked. Look at WW1, WW2, Korea, Lebanon, Nasser in 1956 (Suez Canal),etc.
There is always a wolf or wolf pack waiting on the periphery for a sign of weakness or retreat. We screwed up in Nicaragua in the 1970’s thanks to Jimmy Carter’s damned fool foreign appeasement/retreat policies, and we are still paying the price there, in Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, and El Salvador/Nicaragua.
By standing firm and deadly, we have already changed the dynamics of the Middle East but we need to help our allies defeat the Houthi (Iranian surrogates) in Yemen, Turkey in Iraq/Syria, and Iran wherever feasible.