Size of Buffer Zone
As questions emerge about the size of the alleged “buffer zone”, fighting has broken out.
Of course, this had to be expected because Trump made an agreement with Turkey without the Kurds, one of the two main participants in the conflict.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismisses reports of clashes as disinformation; calls for large safe zone.
Lovely. The Kurds want no buffer zone, but perhaps would settle for a small one.
The Wall Street Journal reports Syria Cease-Fire Tested by Fighting, Questions About Buffer Zone.
The fate of the cease-fire agreement negotiated by the U.S. and Turkey in northeastern Syria was uncertain Friday, as skirmishes erupted between Turkish and Syrian Kurdish forces and questions arose about the boundaries of a buffer zone from which the Kurds are expected to withdraw.
President Trump said his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told him in a phone call that “minor sniper and mortar fire” had stopped. Mr. Erdogan dismissed the clash reports as “disinformation.” A U.S. official said most of the fighting has ended but it would take time for orders to stop the combat to filter through the ranks.
The agreement didn’t specify the size of what Turkey refers to as the safe zone. But Mr. Erdogan said there should be no confusion that Turkey plans to seize control over a roughly 20-mile by 300-mile area stretching from the city of Manbij all the way to Syria’s border with Iraq on the east.
“This is what we call the safe zone,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters, circling the area on a large map with a laser pointer.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper didn’t comment on the size of the buffer zone, but said the U.S., which has withdrawn its troops from combat areas, would have no role in enforcing it.
To recap, we have a buffer zone of no specific size in which one of the fighting parties was not even asked to the table.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
A cease-fire where one side continues to fight is by definition “not a cease-fire”. I suspect that Trump wanted a cease-fire to appease his GOP friends in Congress and so, like his wall, it declared that there was a cease-fire and that he had victory, of course, he kind of forgot to talk to the Turks, so he sent a quick note to Turkey saying that it would be bad for Turkey to continue to fight and that he would be liked by Trump if he stopped for a few days.
Of course, no one thought the letter/note was for real!
Even the President of Turkey though he was being “punked”
On the horns of a dilemma aren’t we? On the one hand it is good to see a US President turning his back on regime change and foreign intervention. On the other hand it takes your breath away when he leaves erstwhile allies in the lurch. The trouble is that the current behaviour is redolent of the way the British ran our empire. Perfidious Albion is not something to be proud of. And lets face a series of abrupt volte-face didn’t serve the British Raj well did it?
“Erstwhile allies” my ass. The US sent troops to help Kurds fight their enemies, and gave them money & guns. The Kurds will buddy-up with anyone that helps their cause. The US getting out of there now before being there makes the situation much worse is the only intelligent thing to do. It is too bad that Turkey is a NATO member but we simply cannot fight against another member.
You seem confused about the meaning of the word Ally.
The US didn’t withdraw, Erdogan told them after four years of talking and patience that he’d had enough (they’ve been talking about a safe zone since 2015), and American troops would be caught in the crossfire, which in fact did happen. If America doesn’t agree, why doesn’t Congress authorize a war against ???. The US is there in blatant contravention of all the principles of international law.
It was perfectly clear from the outset that there would be a Kurdish problem when the US withdrew. Syria, Iraq, and Turkey vehemently disagreed with US involvement and arming the Kurds. There was never a concept or objective as to what the desired outcome should be.
I am sympathetic with the Kurdish cause. The “terrorist” label is BS. Turks have been involved with genocide against the Kurds for a long time. The Kurds are the largest population in the world without a country of their own, something I first learned in the seventies.
You mean Erdogan told Trump to leave and he just followed orders?
If Turkey wants a buffer zone, why is it reasonable to invade a neighboring country to create one?
How else to you acquire one?
They’re not invading. It’s the FSA. The Turks are in a support function. The actual fighting is being done by the FSA, good for genocidal jihadist action, comrades in arms of the IS fighters that they are liberating.
Soon the buffer zone will need a buffer zone.
Trump the Betrayer!
Jojo the drama queen
What a beautiful thing, an American foreign policy success story for the first time in decades. The belligerents will have to work it out for themselves, Russia is putting their people in the crossfire, and America is minding it’s own business for a change. Naturally the dems hate a Trump success story even though it is an American success story. I cannot even imagine a reason why America should be involved in this other than to try to facilitate a peace agreement.
Those troops didn’t come home … they went to Saudi Arabia to defend the people behind 911.
This is the stupidest timeline.
After things stabilize, how long will it take for our European “friends” to push for the resettlement of all the Syrian refugees out of Europe and back ‘home’…..now that the ‘civil war’ is over…
The European friends have high standards, and won’t resettle anybody before Assad is gone. Meantime, refugees vacation in Syria, and come back for more. Stupidity uber alles.
Indeed. I wouldn’t be completely against my country housing a million Syrian refugees, as long as it was on condition that they all return, but only the home sick will. Of course, that would also mean getting out of NATO, quit supporting US policy in the Mid-East, no sanctions for Syria but help in reconstruction, etc etc.
Yeah it’s messy, but I still prefer this to the post 9/11 status quo. Watching MSM heads explode over Trump’s small withdrawal has been entertaining.
Regardless of how the fighting proceeds in Syria, it’s nice to see the warmongers here suffer even a small loss. Hopefully there will be many more to come!
This is not the beginning of the end, but it might be the end of the beginning. Trump needs to finish the war in Afganistan before the elections. Tough not to look like cut and run.
The only people who care about that are warmongers
I think the real message is Trump is now sick and tired of his advisors with their self-serving and contradictory statements, particularly their lies on the situation and the prospects. He is goin by his gut-feeling. However, the US is not out of Syria, and will be doing everything from Iraq and al-Tanf to hinder reconstruction and stability, which is Israeli policy.
Obama’s spokesman mentioned 3× in one press briefing the the US goal was destabilization (not a slip of the tongue).