I spoke with Australia’s top radio program, RN Breakfast, on Monday about President Obama’s authorization of the deployment of up to 50 US Special Forces personnel inside Syria.
My argument is that the deployment is more PR than substance, prompted by the “need to do something to say you are doing something”, following Russia’s high-profile military intervention in support of the Assad regime.
The US probably has had special forces working with Kurdish forces throughout the past year, but the Administration’s declared goal of an offensive on the Islamic State’s center of Raqqa in northern Syria is unlikely to happen — primarily because the Kurds do not see that as a priority, compared to the consolidation of their territory along the Turkish border.