syria US
When the US media began airing helmet cam footage of Delta Force executing a prison break at an ISIS compound last week we suggested that Washington was making an effort to prepare the American public for more boots on the ground in Iraq and the possibility of ground troops in Syria.

The catalyst: Russia and Iran. Put simply, the US has been embarrassed by Moscow and Tehran's coordinated effort to rout the Sunni extremists backed by Riyadh, Doha, and Ankara operating in Iraq and Syria and now, as Baghdad and Kabul threaten to turn to The Kremlin for help in the face of American ineptitude, the Pentagon is desperate to show that the US can still be effective at fighting terrorism.


Comment: The Pentagon is desperate because Russia and Iran are exposing their duplicity for the whole world to see. The 'terrorist menace' they've been at war against for the past 14 years was them all along - and they want to protect their investment.


So while John Kerry wanders around (hopefully not on a bike) in Vienna in a futile effort to get Saudi Arabia and Turkey to sit at the same table and talk rationally with Russia and Iran, the US military is contemplating how to insert itself into the battle without sparking a world war.

For its part, Baghdad has informed the Western media that it neither wants nor needs US help fighting ISIS (that's what all the Iran-backed militias are for) and so instead, The White House may be on the verge of sending spec ops to Syria.

This comes just hours after Moscow reminded the world that if you haven't received an official invitation from Bashar al-Assad, you are not welcome to come to the party. Here's Reuters, citing Tass:
Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that no country could use military force in Syria without first securing the agreement of the Syrian government,the TASS news agency reported.

TASS said Ryabkov was responding to a question about the prospect of the United States launching a ground operation in Syria.

"The question of using military force in any form without the agreement of Damascus is for us unacceptable," it quoted him as saying.
Make no mistake, this will be a disaster.

If US spec ops are placed with the YPG, it will run afoul of Washington's coordination with Turkey just two days before an election that revolves around Erdogan's attempt to paint the Kurds as a threat to national security.

If the Pentagon embeds US troops with the Free Syrian Army, well then they'll be engaging Hezbollah and the Quds directly.

Of course no matter where Obama decides to place the troops, they'll be at risk of getting hit by Russian airstrikes and the consequences of that speak for themselves...