US/Trump abandons base in this town, blows half of it up and retreats hastily. Done so basically at Turkey’s request because SNA (Turkey’s Syrian side) was gaining control of the area.
Russia sets up in said base because half of it is still there and it is in key position. Uses base to support Assad. SNA ended up losing control there.
Assad’s regime falls apart, Russia withdraws. SNA and Kurds are now fighting over the city.
US/Biden is moving in either to the abandoned base or to create a new one very close by.
Plz god tell me this was done with Trump’s team’s position in mind. Cause if we withdraw again Im gonna go fucking nuts.
ghhewh on
Update:The DoD denies the allegations. The American army isn’t establishing a base and the US presence is temporary.
kaesura on
USA military has officially denied setting up a new base in kobani.
Also to put it bluntly, people here have an overly simplistic view of the SDF. SDF is far better than Assad and Daesh but they aren’t secular angels.
SDF aren’t just the kurds and not all kurds support the SDF .
The vast majority of the territory SDF is majority arabic (including the lands that hold the oil reserves) and the SDF do not currently rule with their consent. SDF includes a large arab component in their armed forces, however leadership is basically completed dominated by ex pkk cadres. As a result of assad being overthrown, the arab compontent has been defecting , leading SDF to lean more exclusively on their kurdish militants.
In these arab cities, SDF is mass arresting dissidents and squashing protests. They have a ton of checkpoints and nightly curfews in these majority arab cities run by really inexperienced kurdish militias drawn from rhe young kurdish refugee population.
As a result, SDF (excluding assad) has killed the most civilians in Syria since they rely so heavily on untrained kurds to control a majority arab population. This month they are responsible for the deaths of 166 civilians. Undisciplined mercenary SNA was responsible for 25 and HTS was responsible for 21. In addition, SDF is suspected of setting off 3 car bombs in Mambji this week killing civilians.
in addition, not all kurds support the sdf. hts has around 2-3K kurdish mujahdeen under their control, who hts has traditionally used when they have gone into kurdish territory. hts isn’t interested in cleansing kurds. and even sna and turkey’s awful goal is about breaking sdf’s control and transferring governance to the hts, not cleansing the population. kurdish areas under sna control continue to have majority kurdish populations).
It’s going to be destalibilizing and radicalizing for an explicity kurdish ethnic party to keep on ruling over a majority arab population that doesn’t want their rule. SDF by far was a better alternative than assad and daesh but that isn’t the alternative any longer.
USA should help the SDF come to an diplomatic settlement with hts, especially one that gives them some degree of autonomy over majority kurdish regions. But we should not support them continuing to hold arab territories under kurdish maritial law.
6 Comments
You have to look carefully, because not everything has to mean what you think at first glance. Besides, it leaves the US with more diplomatic options.
!ping MIDDLEEAST&MILITARY
It seems the Pentagon already denies the reports of a new US base in Kobani according to [Al Arabiya(Saudi owned)](https://english.alarabiya.net/amp/News/middle-east/2025/01/03/pentagon-vehemently-denies-reports-of-new-us-base-in-syria-s-kobani)
Ok so to summarize:
US/Trump abandons base in this town, blows half of it up and retreats hastily. Done so basically at Turkey’s request because SNA (Turkey’s Syrian side) was gaining control of the area.
Russia sets up in said base because half of it is still there and it is in key position. Uses base to support Assad. SNA ended up losing control there.
Assad’s regime falls apart, Russia withdraws. SNA and Kurds are now fighting over the city.
US/Biden is moving in either to the abandoned base or to create a new one very close by.
Plz god tell me this was done with Trump’s team’s position in mind. Cause if we withdraw again Im gonna go fucking nuts.
Update:The DoD denies the allegations. The American army isn’t establishing a base and the US presence is temporary.
USA military has officially denied setting up a new base in kobani.
Also to put it bluntly, people here have an overly simplistic view of the SDF. SDF is far better than Assad and Daesh but they aren’t secular angels.
SDF aren’t just the kurds and not all kurds support the SDF .
The vast majority of the territory SDF is majority arabic (including the lands that hold the oil reserves) and the SDF do not currently rule with their consent. SDF includes a large arab component in their armed forces, however leadership is basically completed dominated by ex pkk cadres. As a result of assad being overthrown, the arab compontent has been defecting , leading SDF to lean more exclusively on their kurdish militants.
In these arab cities, SDF is mass arresting dissidents and squashing protests. They have a ton of checkpoints and nightly curfews in these majority arab cities run by really inexperienced kurdish militias drawn from rhe young kurdish refugee population.
As a result, SDF (excluding assad) has killed the most civilians in Syria since they rely so heavily on untrained kurds to control a majority arab population. This month they are responsible for the deaths of 166 civilians. Undisciplined mercenary SNA was responsible for 25 and HTS was responsible for 21. In addition, SDF is suspected of setting off 3 car bombs in Mambji this week killing civilians.
in addition, not all kurds support the sdf. hts has around 2-3K kurdish mujahdeen under their control, who hts has traditionally used when they have gone into kurdish territory. hts isn’t interested in cleansing kurds. and even sna and turkey’s awful goal is about breaking sdf’s control and transferring governance to the hts, not cleansing the population. kurdish areas under sna control continue to have majority kurdish populations).
[https://snhr.org/blog/2025/01/02/1264-civilian-deaths-including-242-children-and-118-women-as-well-as-86-deaths-due-to-torture-documented-in-syria-in-2024/](https://snhr.org/blog/2025/01/02/1264-civilian-deaths-including-242-children-and-118-women-as-well-as-86-deaths-due-to-torture-documented-in-syria-in-2024/)
It’s going to be destalibilizing and radicalizing for an explicity kurdish ethnic party to keep on ruling over a majority arab population that doesn’t want their rule. SDF by far was a better alternative than assad and daesh but that isn’t the alternative any longer.
USA should help the SDF come to an diplomatic settlement with hts, especially one that gives them some degree of autonomy over majority kurdish regions. But we should not support them continuing to hold arab territories under kurdish maritial law.
Meanwhile Russia is gradually [moving to base in Libya](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/31/middleeast/spike-russian-flights-libya-desert-base-intl/index.html)