President Donald Trump announced last December the decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. In a tweet on Twitter, he said that after the defeat of the Da'ash organization, it was time for the soldiers to return home. Unfortunately, the organization showed it was alive and well, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Syria, killing four Americans. Perhaps the rule of "da'ash" has faded, but there are still some 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
This attack may have been a message from the terrorist organization to the US president. Whatever the motivation, if the United States intends to remain a key player in the Middle East, it must be clear in Syria, if not on the ground.
It is certainly the right thing to do, led the Allies with the Syrian Democratic Forces in the forefront, to fight against the "call" on the ground, at the request of the United States, and they are now at risk of being annihilated from US ally Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to dismantle Syrian forces and replace them with local forces, but the Kurds are local forces. The population of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) is about four million, and the Self-Defense Forces have 66,000 fighters, men and women, all of whom are indigenous Syrians. Among the ethnic and religious groups represented in the Syrian democratic forces are Kurds, Arabs, Yezidis, Muslims and Christians. The United States has a responsibility not only to ensure the safety of the Kurds and their partners for years to come, but also to allow them to govern themselves. They fought for "urging" for us and now we have to protect them.
Trump has several viable options if he wants the United States to maintain its influence in Syria. The first is the cancellation of the decision to withdraw US troops from this country, but this is unlikely, and the second is the support of European countries wishing to establish a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria to avoid the Turkish aggression against the Syrian Democratic forces, and this is also unlikely, as Ankara penetrated its own forces inside Syria, The third feasible option is to impose an air-embargo zone in northeastern Syria to prevent the Turkish "slaughter" of Syria's democratic power.
The no-fly zone was successfully tested after 1991, when Saddam Hussein threatened the Kurds in Iraq. Without soldiers on the ground, the United States carried out the embargo zone in coordination with the United Kingdom and France, allowing the safety of the Kurds so far, and ultimately the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government. This regional government was very useful to America. During the 2003 Iraq war it was a safe haven The only one in all of Iraq, where we did not lose one US soldier during the war there.
Today, Trump has the opportunity to create another Middle East exclusion zone, acceptable not only to the United States but also to the rest of the West. The Syrian Democratic Forces are in a much better position than the Kurds of Iraq in 1991. These forces conducted elections, established local councils to represent different religions and races, and allowed women to participate on an equal footing with men. The Self-Defense Forces have been a self-contained entity since 2015. What the Syrian Democratic Forces currently lack is security in the air.
The application of the no-fly zone will require countries like France to keep their forces on the ground to discourage Turkey from invading the Kurds. French President Emmanuel Macaron promised to keep French forces in Syria for another year after US troops withdrew. Others, such as the British and the Dutch, are also ready to help the Kurdish armed factions with ground troops, as long as there is a US air force supporting them.
The United States must withdraw its troops gradually, perhaps by moving them to neighboring Iraq, where there are more than 5,000 troops and where America has the lion base. A US air base in Jordan, the Mowaffak Salti Air Base, can be used to enforce a flight ban. There is also the Ali al-Salem air base in Kuwait to enforce the air embargo in northern Syria. Without US troops on the ground, creating a no-fly zone can make the US president fulfill his promise of full withdrawal, while our ally is still supporting Syria's democratic forces.
America's credibility in the region is otherwise at risk. Ignoring the plight of the Kurdish forces will force them to conclude a deal with the regime of Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which would undermine the national security of the United States.
The United States can not allow Syria to return to before the 2011 revolution. The withdrawal of troops would legitimize the Assad regime, allow Iran to expand, and enable Russia. But it is still possible to prevent all this by creating a safe haven for Syria's democratic forces in the northeast of the country through the no-fly zone.
Diliman Abdul Qader, director of the Kurdistan project in the «Stand the truth the Middle East»
The no-fly zone was successfully tested after 1991, when Saddam Hussein threatened the Kurds in Iraq. Without soldiers on the ground, the United States carried out the embargo zone in coordination with the United Kingdom and France.
The application of the no-fly zone will require countries like France to keep their forces on the ground to discourage Turkey from invading the Kurds.