Syria, strategy comparison

Two different approaches to the Syria problem.

The U.S. does a bombing campaign with no credible ground forces. And, spends $500M (or more) training "friendly" candidates to go in to Syria as "moderates". Then, those "trained" troops surrender and/or get captured.

How about Russia? Well, Assad was always their boy. So a bit easier for Russia to provide help. For them, this is normal. And now with more U.S. failure, Russia steps up the game with this initial bed-down.

By Anthony H. Cordesman
SEP 23, 2015

According to reliable press reports, President Vladimir Putin has already made major changes in the Russian military role in Syria. No one can yet estimate how many more forces and weapons Russia will provide, but so far Putin’s major actions include:
• Expanding Russian port facilities in the naval base at Tartus and expanding an airfield south of Latakia into an air base.
• Deploying 3-4 Su-27 fighters, 12 Su-24 strike fighters, 12 Su-10 close support fighters, and Pchela-1T UAVs.
• Providing R-166-0.5 (ultra) high-frequency signal (HF/VHF) vehicles with jam-resistant voice and data communications, which have been seen driving through Syria.
• Providing an unknown number of new artillery weapons, reportedly 152 millimeter (mm) systems.
• Deploying six or more T-90 main battle tanks, 35 or more new BTR-82A/B wheeled armored-fighting vehicles (AFVs) with 30 mm cannon turrets, and an unknown number of Russian Humvee equivalents.
• Deploying prefabricated housing for up to 2,000.
• Deploying an unknown number of SA-22 land-based air defense systems.
• Possibly deploying 200 marines and housing for as many as 1,500 personnel at the airfield near President Bashar al-Assad’s ancestral family home.

The U.S. policy is off the known map of reality.

An easier U.S. policy is to not get involved at all. The U.S. already gave up on Iraq in 2011 when the president considered it good-to-go. Now, all those thousands of U.S. and coalition troops that are KIA and wounded, have died in vain.

So, U.S. policy in the Middle East and south-west Asia has a well established track-record of not working.

Not much new there.

Putin and Assad just have to wait around while the U.S. policy continues to fail. Most U.S. policy is blind to the long-game.

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