Jan 29, 2018
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On Northern Syria Front Line, U.S. and Turkey Head Into Tense Face-off
A correspondent and a photographer of The New York Times, traveling with American generals in northern Syria, visited a city where armed conflict is now possible between the United States and Turkey.
The two generals might be putting out though soundbites, but I suspect the real purpose for their frontline inspection is to put local US commanders and troops on a tight leash.
American special forces have always enjoyed a high degree of operational autonomy, and have a very strong and unique warrior code. A core component of that warrior code is brotherhood.
Those American special forces have fought and bled with the Kurds for potentially years, and would have a high degree of respect and comradery with the Kurds probably boardering on the bond of brotherhood they have with each other.
The Turkish attack on the Kurds would not have sat well at all with those American special forces.
The gruesome stories and pictures/video surfacing of what the ‘good’ terrorists the Turks have brought with them have done to captured and dead Kurdish fighters, especially the female ones, is enough to turn the stomach and boil the blood of neutrals, so one could only imagine at the kinds of emotion those stories must be stirring up in the barracks of the US special forces operators who personally knew and are friends with those Kurdish fighters involved.
With drones and military satellites as well as other assets available to them, those American special forces probably saw some of those incidents live and maybe worse the mainstream media does not know or could not verify to report on.
I would bet good money it would not take much ‘provocations’ for those American special forces to open up with extreme prejudice on the Turks given half a chance, which is probably why those generals are there in person to make sure no one gets that chance.
