One possibility is two or three safe zones in more remote parts of the country, backed up by perhaps 1,000 American military personnel and other countries’ special forces in each (with an implied annual cost of perhaps several billion dollars2), rather than a snowballing and successful nationwide campaign.
...This approach builds on current U.S. strategy, but with a much less glaring mismatch between means and ends. Requiring ideological purity of opposition fighters would no longer be quite as high of a bar. Requiring that they were untainted by past associations with extremists would no longer be a central element of the vetting process either.
Training opposition fighters in the safety of Turkey, Jordan, and other friendly countries would still be the first step. But it would not over time be sufficient, either, since many opposition fighters are reluctant to leave their home territories—and thereby leave their families and communities unprotected—in order to go abroad for training. The idea would be to help moderate elements establish reliable safe zones within Syria once they were able. American, as well as Saudi and Turkish and British and Jordanian and other Arab forces would act in support, not only from the air but eventually on the ground via the presence of special forces as well. The approach would benefit from Syria’s open desert terrain which could allow creation of buffer zones that could be monitored for possible signs of enemy attack through a combination of technologies, patrols, and other methods that outside special forces could help Syrian local fighters set up.
Were Assad foolish enough to challenge these zones, even if he somehow forced the withdrawal of the outside special forces, he would be likely to lose his airpower in ensuing retaliatory strikes by outside forces, depriving his military of one of its few advantages over ISIL. Thus, he would be unlikely to do this.
...The ultimate end-game for these zones would not have to be determined in advance. The interim goal might be a confederal Syria, with several highly autonomous zones. One of those zones might be for Alawites. But none could be for ISIL, al-Nusra, or Assad and his inner circle. “Accidental guerrillas,” to use David Kilcullen’s memorable phrase, who had previously been in cahoots with some of these groups could in some cases be forgiven their transgressions, if there were reason to think that they were dependable.
[source : Michael O'Hanlon, Deconstructing Syria, Brookings, June 2015]
So these 'safe' zones that Turkey will establish in North Syria (with the nod from the USA) will protect Syrian refugees from Assad and Islamic State. But we know that the USA proposed Islamic State in 2012!!
There is no pre-destiny of these zones. They are being established to possibly give options.
They are to be protected by American, Saudi, Turkish, British (why British?), Jordanian and other Arab forces, as well as special forces from those and other nations (the SAS are there already).
But note the last paragraph: basically anyone who has fought for al Qaeda or al Nusra will be able to take control of and operate out of one these 'safe' zones. They are to be called Accidental Guerrillas.
So there is no set timeline, no set plan for these 'safe' zones, but the hope is that Syrian rebels, including some veterans of al Qaeda and al Nusra, whose previous membership of those terrorist organisations will be overlooked, will begin to train and then operate out of these 'safe' zones, safe in the knowledge that they will be able carry out guerrilla warfare tactics in Syria against the Syrian military then flee to their safe zone that will be protected by American air force.
In other words, provoke Syria into attacking.
This is sick.
But what is perhaps even more sick is that O'Hanlon was on Russia Today a few months ago pushing these ideas!
So I'm beginning to wonder if a deal has been struck. Saudi Arabia and Russia are doing big business now, and Russia has signed with Turkey to send Russian gas to Europe via Turkey. Yet it is Turkey who has been arguably the enabler of the war in Syria, and who is now using the terrorists that it helped to create as an excuse to bomb Syria and create these safe zones that will turn into American-protected terrorist enclaves.
Confused?
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