Disaffection In the American Armed Forces
Should President Obama continue with his plan to deploy U.S. troops to fight alongside Al Qaeda he risks serious disaffection in branches of the services.
(At this moment a vigorous internal hunt is taking place to try to identify those whom, I would call patriots, who will, more likely, not follow orders to side with America's enemies.)
This policy of engagement in Syria is
ill-conceived,not thought through and the only beneficiaries will be
Saudi Arabia and Islamic extremists.
What Has Led To Disaffection Amongst Rank-and-File Personnel?
U.S. forces are amongst the most highly trained,professional and reliable in the world. U.S. Special Forces are,as I have said in BBC World TV interviews after 9/11, the best in the world. They are noted for their unfaltering loyalty, whatever the situation of personal disapproval. None, however, joined the armed services to serve nor fight alongside Al Qaeda, the sworn enemies of America, everything American and the Christian world as a whole.
President Obama's foreign policy has been a complete shambles from the beginning. He switched from supporting friendly pro-West secular Muslim regimes,as dictatorial, undemocratic and oppressive as most were, to supporting religious fanatics.
All the above should not detract from the enormous foreign policy blunder he is about to engage in.
Syria is not Libya,nor Iraq nor Afghanistan.
President Obama is opening a can of worms which will engulf the entire region into decades of conflict and strife. (Perhaps that's the objective?;again if it was, I will be the last person in the world to be told.)
Hezbollah is the most effective fighting force in that entire region of the Muslim world. Technology notwithstanding, they can hold their own against the IDF and Special Forces-which they have shown on many occasions. IDF personnel will tell you that the one force they do not desire to encounter, is Hezbollah. They are a well-disciplined, seasoned, fighting force which have earned the respect-even of their enemies.
Taking on Syria is effectively taking on Hezbollah. Once Hezbollah is fully committed in the Syrian civil war, so too is Iran. So the fight over the future of Iran will take place in Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Turkey with jihadi fanatics from the four corners of the Islamic world being beckoned to join in this 'Holy War'.
A military coup in Turkey is also a not too remote possibility - so unpopular amongst the Turkish population as a whole - is the current (U.S. backed) Sunni (pro Salafist) leadership and their stance in the Syrian civil war.
The Turks,despite their partial and temporary truce with the PKK, will not be able to contain the spillover of this new conflict which will engulf their Kurdish borders.
As a guest of the Turkish Ambassador in London I once had the opportunity (on a river trip) just after the PKK leader was captured, to urge moderation and suggest clemency from a possible death sentence for Mr Ocalan. My reasoning was that he might be useful someday. Thank goodness at that time a moderate secular (Atatürk) Turkish government was in power-and taking rational decisions. I do not profess to have had one iota of influence but realpolitik was, at that time, in Turkey, the order of the day. Today the religious fanatics have taken power in Turkey - by stealth. Secular rationalism is today, in Turkey, secondary, to religious priorities.
Throw God and Allah into that arena of the Syrian conflict and you have an unholy mess.
Syria will not stand by and take 90 days of 'punishment' from the United States Congress. There will be a response.
90 days from zero we may yet again see the President telling us why American (or a Turkish-Gulf coalition,NATO-backed) forces must now be committed to deal with Syria's 'response' to it's 'punishment'. Neither do a significant number of U.S. serving troops want to see this scenario-because such will involve propping up Al Qaeda, the sworn enemy of everything American, to enable them to seize power from Assad,the secular President of Syria.
For Israel to take sides in this civil strife in Syria is a big mistake. It will have to live with it's neighbors forever (notwithstanding ability to move the entire territory to Manhattan or Key West.)
Only extremism can triumph in the current circumstances.
Patrick Emek
September 4th 2013