Syria Train Wreck Brings Region’s Fighting Cocks into the Ring

One Plan To Guide Them All: “…..The dissolution of Syria and Iraq... into ethnically or religiously unique areas… is Israel’s primary target… while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short-term target. Syria will fall apart in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure…” —Oded Yinon, A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties, voltairenet

Israeli military forces have moved to within 15 miles of the Syrian Capital of Damascus. The IDF has seized large tracts of land in southern Syria it intends to occupy and where it will eventually build checkpoints, military outposts and settlements. The “lightening” invasion has been accompanied by a massive bombing campaign that has obliterated numerous military bases, weapons depots and research labs eliminating any hope that Syria will regain the ability to defend itself or to reestablish its sovereign independence. For all practical purposes, Syria no longer exists; the persistent attacks of foreign enemies have left the country vanquished and splintered. The carve-up of the critically located nation-state has already begun.

At the same time the IDF is closing in on Damascus, US Forces along the Turkish border have started building a military base in the city of Kobani. The move is intended to provoke Turkey into a confrontation that will pit Washington’s Kurdish proxy militia against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA). The situation is fraught with danger as it increases the likelihood that two NATO members will soon clash in northeastern Syria.

Here’s more from an article at the Daily Sabah:

The United States is reportedly building a military base to help its ally the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, in northern Syria where the terrorists have been cornered by the Türkiye-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.

Local journalists said 13 trucks with U.S. flags and carrying concrete construction blocks arrived in the PKK/YPG’s stronghold Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani, early on Thursday morning. The U.S. military has emptied a base in neighboring Iraq and the concrete blocks and other materials are being shipped to Ain al-Arab for a Syrian base, according to local sources. Earlier this week, the U.S. military transferred dozens of Bradley armored vehicles to the region and supplied air defense systems and other armored vehicles to the YPG….

The PKK is proscribed as a terrorist group by the European Union, the U.S. and Türkiye. It is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in Türkiye, including women and children. It maintains strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled “Kurdish state.”

The U.S. has dispatched troops along with military equipment and weapons to Syria’s northeast during the Syrian civil war to help the PKK/YPG under the pretext of the fight against Daesh. Ankara says the YPG/PKK is on par with Daesh and should have no presence in the new Syria. US said to set up military base in Syria as SNA corners PKK/YPG, Daily Sabah

The excerpt above helps to show just how tense the situation in Syria is at the present time. While Washington applauded Turkey’s support for the jihadists who just toppled Assad and seized power in Damascus, the Biden administration is deliberately provoking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a critical matter of national security. (Turkish leaders regard US support for the Kurds (YPG) as a threat to their security.) This duplicitous behavior is not uncommon for the US which operates on the theory that allies are only allies for as long as they serve Washington’s overall interests.

The US will continue to support the Kurds (aka—The Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF) in order to preserve access to Syrian oil in the East, and to further reinforce its support for Israeli policy in the region. Israel’s affection for the Kurds is purely pragmatic as this excerpt from an article at CNN explains: