'Harlly' has attempted to make a name for himself as a personality in the world of social networking, such as Facebook, fascinated with his own tattoos, dubbing himself the 'illustrated man', Harlly wanted to be seen as a 'soldier of fortune' fighting against ISIS terrorists and defending Kurdish and Syriac villages, in the image of the lone-wolf 'bad-ass' replete with all the bravado borrowed from the US's own military fiction film lore.
But the business of war and the criminal interventions of the US and Harlly, tells a different story. Now referring to his MFS commanders as his 'bosses', once things stopped going the US's and Harlly's way, the mercenary nature of his work is revealed, and no longer does he offer the pretense of a principled fighter, but is instead suddenly ensnared in an unfortunate dispute with his 'employers'.
Several factors changed along the way for Harlly. In July of this year, Trump, in his ongoing tug-o-war with the US's deep state (parts of the MIC, NSA, CIA, etc.) announced an end to the CIA program of financing of the SDF, which is how Harlly's payroll was previously made possible. At the same time, Russian social media and on-the-ground work has made some headway in trying to flip or redirect the Kurdish efforts - we see this evidenced whenever semi-official Russian media and analysts entertain the question of even greater Kurdish autonomy within a Ba'ath party led Syria. The US meanwhile had also previously worked to flip or redirect the Syriac (ethnic Assyrians) who by and large support the present Syrian government and the Russian effort, as evidenced by the creation of the MFS (Syriac Military Council).
No longer would he be involved in semi-staged fights, now the SDF needs to directly take on the Syrian Arab Army and the Russian Army in order to preserve its gains - from the above screen-shot:
"Guy with guns came into my room, handed me a broken sniper rifle and told me I can either go to der ezzor and fight the Syrian regime and Russian army or go to prison, I said what about going home?' Nothing. Now I'm in prison"
Why doesn't he want to directly confront the SAA and Russian Army? The Americans are in a process of conceding its defeat in Syria, a process which began as soon as the Russians were invited by the constitutional government of Syria, headed by Assad. Legitimate Syriac and Kurdish efforts against ISIS can only likely be carried forward with the help of the SAA and Russian Army itself.
So the formerly US sponsored leadership of the SDF (et al) have been left to hang: they are in between a rock and a hard place, and are forced to carry on the fight in a logistically impossible direction. Harlly wants to make his income and 'look cool' doing it, but obviously doesn't have a real dog in this race - this is not a conflict any American mercenary actually wants to die in, and understandably so. And this is an historic dilemma that arises throughout the history and written discourses on the use of mercenaries, universally.
Russian and American 'volunteers' in the Syrian conflict often have met, know each other, have shared flights in and out of Syria from Turkey, and we would assume have maintained some level of personal and professional contact, even if 'under the radar'.
The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK), whose colors and patches Harlly was nominally fighting under, with its military wing Hêzên Parastina Gel (HPG), had been operating from 1978 through 1999 from Syria, and afterwards from the Qandil-Mountains in northern Iraq, in the PUK-part of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq.
The Barzanis (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and the PKK profoundly hate each other. The Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (YPG) is the military arm of the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD), the Syrian affiliate of the PKK. Most of the YPG commanders and fighters are Qandil-Kurds, i.e. PKK.
What Howard, aka 'Harlly' is doing is sending a message to Russia and the SAA - ''I don't want to fight you, help me get out of this mess!'' As his American paymasters have left him high and dry - will the Russians help bail him out?
Note the YPG patch on his left arm, and 'Ocalan' PKK patch on his right arm.
'Stand alone' - until the US's CIA stops paying your salary
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT LEFT AMERICAN MERCENARIES TRYING TO RETURN HOME WITHOUT HELP
American mercenaries in Syria can not return home, the State Department does not help them in any way, and the SDF, for which they fought, arrested them on charges of treason and arms sales to militants of the Islamic State terrorist group. Two American citizens fear that they will be landed on the border of Iraq without money and communication.
According to the Marine Corps Times, Marine veteran Kevin Howard and an American citizen and veteran of the French foreign legion Taylor Hudson, presumably, were detained in Syria after US special forces refused to help them in their attempt to return home.
Both Americans were mercenaries participating in the fighting on the side of the SDF.
He was given a choice,
"Guy with guns came into my room, handed me a broken sniper rifle and told me I can either go to der ezzor and fight the Syrian regime and Russian army or go to prison, I said what about going home?' Nothing. Now I'm in prison"
So if he did go "home" would he continue to be a mercenary and deployed to another crisis area?
I say, he made his bed let him lie in it, he is fortunate it's in prison. If the situation was reversed and he was a Syrian, I suspect he may have received a bullet in the head.