Thursday, October 17, 2019

Trump is right to recognize limits of US military in Syria, ex-ambassador

According to Robert Ford, the last U.S. ambassador to serve in Syria, these critics fail to recognize the limits of American influence over developments inside Syria. Further, he advised that changing the facts on the ground would require a military and diplomatic investment that most Americans are not likely willing to make.
"I think the president is correct in saying that, in the end, the countries there in the Middle East—Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran—they're the ones that are going to have to devise and negotiate a sustainable solution to the crisis in Syria, including eastern Syria," said Ford, who is currently a fellow at the Middle East Institute and Yale University.
"The idea that Americans are going to achieve that is not realistic," he explained. "Because the Americans don't even speak to two of the central protagonists, the Syrian government and the Iranian government, and the size of our military deployment is far too small to provide much diplomatic leverage."
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Related:
The Syrian mess is “good war” because Trump wants out:

https://trumpisright.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-syrian-mess-is-good-war-because.html