Throughout history, the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic and the surrounding areas have been conquered, occupied and ruled by several empires. In ancient times, the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks and Romans all ruled until their empires collapsed. The Ottoman Empire had a good run, lasting for approximately 400 years before the Europeans took their turn.
In 1916, England and France, with the assent of Russia and Italy, signed a secret treaty (the Sykes-Picot Agreement) to partition and control the Ottoman Empire. According to the agreement, Great Britian was to receive what is today southern Israel, Palestine, Jordan and southern Iraq, and an additional small area that included the ports of Haifa and Acre to allow access to the Mediterranean.[ France was to control southeastern Turkey, the Kurdistan Region, Syria and Lebanon. Russia was to get Western Armenia in addition to Constantinople and the Turkish Straits The Palestine region, was to fall under an "international administration"
That certainly didn’t last long, and Syria finally emerged as an independent country for the first time in October 1945, upon the signing of the United Nations Charter by the Syrian government. Unfortunately, the period following independence saw numerous military coups and coup attempts until 1963, when the Ba’ath Party seized power, and it was soon run by the Assad family exclusively starting in 1970.
The Assad family rule certainly did not last long. In the last few weeks, Syrian rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, have ousted the Syrian government, and taken control of much of the country. Who or what is HTS? It is a Sunni Islamist militant and political group founded in 2011, with links to ISIS and al-Quaida. It is making nice now, saying it will respect the rights of the many minorities living in Syria. Really? The United States certainly hopes so.
Although the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Security Council have previously designated HTS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the U.S. is set to remove the $10 million bounty it had placed on the HTS leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who is now the presumptive new leader of the Syrian government. Will the HTS rule last? That probably depends upon the decisions of the other major players in the region.
The Russians, the Iranians, and Iran’s Lebanese client Hezbollah, who were Assad’s biggest military backers, are the biggest losers. They have largely fled the scene along with Assad, thus have lost much of their power and influence in the country and surrounding region.
Turkey may be the biggest winner. HTS leader al-Jolani recently said that that Syria would establish strategic and commercial relations with Turkey, and that it would not forget the "kindness" Turkey has shown to Syrian refugees. No doubt it also won’t forget how Turkey also provided HTS with training, intelligence and weapons, including drones.
However, the Turks won’t just depend upon HTS kindness, for they have actually occupied the northern part of Syria since August 2016. Back then, they targeted the radical Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL or ISIS). In addition, their military operation was intended to expel the rebel Kurdish group, SDF, from its the border region as well as to create a 30 km-deep (20 mi) "safe zone" in Northern Syria where some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey would resettle. Today, the goals government of Turkey remain the same: it wants to protect its border, primarily by eradicating the Syrian Kurdish SDF (a US backed ally) as a military threat. They also want to protect their border from a threat posed by any radical, extreme Islamic group that could emerge from the chaos. For the foreseeable future, the Turkish army will remain in Syria.
Israel also can be considered to be a winner. Their first goal was to destroy everything from Assad's army that could fall into the hands of the Jihadist rebels, so they immediately launched 600 Israeli air strikes over the course of eight days, destroying their navy, airbases, missile storehouses, and taking out 90% of Syria’s known surface-to-air missiles – thus degrading and destroying what was once among the most feared anti-air defense system in the region. Israel’s army was also very active. They acted to protect Israel’s border by capturing Syria’s Mount Hermon. This is the highest place in the region, looking down on Lebanon, Syria and Israel. From there, its tanks continued to roll, and according to the Voice of the Capital, a Syrian activist group, they have reached as far as 16 miles from Damascus, Syria’s capital.
What about the United States? Immediately following Assad’s fall, the U.S. carried out dozens of airstrikes on over 75 targets involving ISIS operatives and camps, using B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets and A-10 close-air support attack aircraft. The purpose was "to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria," according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. In addition, the Pentagon has just confessed that US currently has “approximately 2,000 troops in Syria more than double the amount previously admitted. They are spread between several small outposts where they continue to train Kurdish militias and work to keep ISIS from regenerating, while guiding U.S. airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias operating in the country.
Continued US occupation of Syria may not last much longer. President-elect Trump has recently said the following: “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, and the United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved.”
We agree with President Elect Trump - this should not be our fight. Let the Israelis, the Turks, the Kurds and all the radical Jihadist rebels, including ISIS, fight it out. Syria’s boundaries and that of the whole Middle East have changed numerous times throughout the ages, and they will continue to change in the future. Our 2,000 soldiers are more of a reactionary force, and they will not make a difference. It’s time to bring our troops home!
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