A few things here: The announcement in question has been denied [and then reconfirmed?] since it was first reported. The Syrian military right now is pushing northward in Idlib against HTS and Da'esh. It probably lacks the manpower and weaponry to take on the Turks without having to abandon this Idlib priority.
It is also not clear what the "deal" was with Russia and Turkey that led to Russia's green-lighting the Afrin operation is intended to achieve. Together with Iran, it is likely a gambit to move the US/SDF out of eastern Syria's and its borders with Iraq.
If the US does bend to the Turkish demand that we abandon Manbij, it is possible that the whole of the YPD, not just the Afrin branch, will give up on the US in the rest of Syria. According to the Turkish media, the USG has finally stated that we now DO consider the YPG to be part of the terrorist PKK and that we have vowed to NO LONGER supply them with arms. Before that, we told the YPD in the east that if any of them leave their positions in the east to help protect their western canton, they were no longer with the US. It is unclear how many Kurdish fighters actually did so. It was reported that ten of their Western [US, Brit, other European] volunteers have moved to Afrin.
Bringing the Kurds back under SAG control would eliminate the proximate excuse Turkey uses to justify its incursion. Of course, they have also gone back to their "regime change" line but the Russians have a whole lot of ways to lean on Turkey on issues unrelated to Syria to retreat, leaving yet more sovereign territory under government control.
And where does all this leave the SDF as a unified force?
The term "scientific" is used for this set of papers. I would like to know if any of the pieces were peer-reviewed formally or at least looked at by individuals wiith social science credentials. What "methodology" could possibly have been used to arrive at the author's conclusions. This should be very troubling for the reputation of the US military's education program.
A few things here: The announcement in question has been denied [and then reconfirmed?] since it was first reported. The Syrian military right now is pushing northward in Idlib against HTS and Da'esh. It probably lacks the manpower and weaponry to take on the Turks without having to abandon this Idlib priority.
It is also not clear what the "deal" was with Russia and Turkey that led to Russia's green-lighting the Afrin operation is intended to achieve. Together with Iran, it is likely a gambit to move the US/SDF out of eastern Syria's and its borders with Iraq.
If the US does bend to the Turkish demand that we abandon Manbij, it is possible that the whole of the YPD, not just the Afrin branch, will give up on the US in the rest of Syria. According to the Turkish media, the USG has finally stated that we now DO consider the YPG to be part of the terrorist PKK and that we have vowed to NO LONGER supply them with arms. Before that, we told the YPD in the east that if any of them leave their positions in the east to help protect their western canton, they were no longer with the US. It is unclear how many Kurdish fighters actually did so. It was reported that ten of their Western [US, Brit, other European] volunteers have moved to Afrin.
Bringing the Kurds back under SAG control would eliminate the proximate excuse Turkey uses to justify its incursion. Of course, they have also gone back to their "regime change" line but the Russians have a whole lot of ways to lean on Turkey on issues unrelated to Syria to retreat, leaving yet more sovereign territory under government control.
And where does all this leave the SDF as a unified force?
The term "scientific" is used for this set of papers. I would like to know if any of the pieces were peer-reviewed formally or at least looked at by individuals wiith social science credentials. What "methodology" could possibly have been used to arrive at the author's conclusions. This should be very troubling for the reputation of the US military's education program.