U.S. Considers a No-Fly Zone to Protect Civilians From Airstrikes by Syria
Source: New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has not ruled out establishing a no-fly zone over northeastern Syria to protect civilians from airstrikes by the Syrian government, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday.
Mr. Hagel and General Dempsey indicated they are open to considering the request of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey for a buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border, where tens of thousands of Syrians have sought refuge. Mr. Hagel said, “We’ve discussed all these possibilities and will continue to talk about what the Turks believe they will require.” He said 1.3 million Syrian refugees are now in Turkey.
General Dempsey added that “a buffer zone might at some point become a possibility,” but he said it was not imminent. Creating a buffer, or no-fly zone, would require warplanes to disable the Syrian government’s air defense system through airstrikes.
Both men spoke as the Pentagon continued its own airstrikes against Sunni militants who are battling President Bashar al-Assad of Syria — a complication of the American military campaign in Syria, which began this week with airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/world/middleeast/us-considers-a-no-fly-zone-to-protect-civilians-from-airstrikes-by-syria-.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0
U.S.-Backed Syrian Rebels Want No-Fly Zone
Friday, 26 September 2014 17:50
The Syrian rebels the United States has offered to arm and train for the fight against Islamic State terrorists say they need a "no-fly" zone in Syria to protect them from the air force of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Hadi al-Bahra, the president of the Syrian opposition, said in an interview with the New York Times that protection from Assad's aerial attacks would be needed once the trained troops take to the battlefield. "Our forces have to be either equipped with an air-defense system like Manpads or a no-fly zone has to be imposed in these areas," he said, referring to a type of shoulder-fired missile launcher. "We cannot throw our people to fight where they are a target of airstrikes by the regime."
The establishment of a no-fly zone would, however, pit U.S. pilots against Assad's air force, something the United States would want to avoid while continuing to bomb bases of the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq. The Damascus government has apparently given the United States a free pass thus far for aerial attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria. The Syrian news agency in reporting the attacks made no mention of violations of the nation's sovereignty, an issue raised by the Syrian government when President Obama began talking about extending the air campaign in Iran into Syria to hit Islamic State targets there as well. Lt. General William C. Mayville, Jr., director of operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Syria's air defenses were "passive" during the strikes the United States and some of its coalition partners launched against the Sunni militants on Monday.
more...
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/19198-us-backed-syrian-rebels-want-no-fly-zone
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zeemike
(18,998 posts)We can see where this is leading.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)did pre-2003 in Iraq.
This 'party' is just getting started and unfortunately, the result will be the same. Clusterfuck.
Waiting to hear the Kremlins response to this purposed 'no-fly zone'...
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)Without even making a case against Assad we seem to be pursuing a course of action very similar to what happened in Iraq.
We may soon go from bombing inside Syria, to telling Syria that can't fly inside their own country, to .... (?)
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)as possible to Syria? It seemed to me that was always the case. The Dem ultra-hawks are almost as bad as the ones who surrounded Bush II.
How our President, who came in promising to get us out of the war business, has been talked into this, I'd like to know.
daleo
(21,317 posts)
Cayenne
(480 posts)We will be the aggressors and not them.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)quadrature
(2,049 posts)just wonderful
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)It was billed as 3 to 5 years, but it seems like just one more extension of Bush II's "long war."
quadrature
(2,049 posts)after taking office.
we have had enough of war.
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)Future Peace Prizes will be awarded on deeds, not hopes.
Some of us had really high hopes.
I've had enough war, too.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)...
A campaign to prevent Syrian villagers from succumbing to deadly chemical weapons has been launched months after the Telegraph exposed chlorine gas attacks by the regime of Bashar al Assad.
Activists gathered this week under conditions of great secrecy on the Syrian Turkish border to start special training sessions and the distribution of equipment to prevent deaths from poison gas.
..
However John Kerry, the US secretary of state, confirmed on Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad had broke the terms of a subsequent disarmament pact to handover Syria’s chemical weapons by continuing the deadly attacks.
...
Everybody thinks that Assad has given up his chemical weapons, so what is the problem?” he says. “But we have proved he has very deadly alternatives that he can drop in a barrel over homes and towns. Not only that but Isil has seized chemicals and there are reports it is experimenting with loading these in rockets against its enemies.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11109485/Doctors-gather-on-Syria-border-to-save-chemical-weapons-victims.html
flamingdem
(39,312 posts)the coalition won't help them in Kobane and other towns because of Turkey.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)flamingdem
(39,312 posts)I read that drones were over the city yesterday but thought it might be to scare off Isis but not act. That is kind of a breakthrough because I imagine Turkey gave the okay for it.
flamingdem
(39,312 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)But I assume that's just an assist, it's going to have to be the Kurds who really fight them, same as in Iraq.
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)saw this coming the moment said they will traget ISIS in Syria. I hate to be a conspiracy nut but I have always wondered why ISIS terrorists would want to draw the US and their western ally into Syria. Britain says they will not join the coalition, they behead a British journalist, France says they will just conduct air strikes in Iraq and leave them alone in Syria, bam they behead a French journalist and they did the same to American to start all of this.
TV journalists tell me its because the ISIS terrorists are not from the west and thus misjudged how the west will react to the beheadings. But I wonder to myself, the people doing the beheading are westerns, so at least they should have known the kind of outcry this will provoke and even if they did not know, they should have known after the 1st killing
I hate to think like this, but I won't be surprised if this was revealed after 50yrs as some CIA covert operation to get American remove Assad.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)
The US will be economically broken by then and at that point all will be revealed.
We can not continue this great 'crusade' of supposed democracy/military incursions by just running the US treasury printing presses.
Indeed, the 'chickens will come home to roost' more likely sooner than later.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Obama Blasts Brutality and Bullying, But Not by Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025588356
Good god, the hypocrisy burns.
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)some people. Its not like R2P was meant to cover people like the Palestinians or the Eastern Ukrainians. Just call them terrorists and bomb away.
uriel1972
(4,261 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)As opposed to, say, providing half a billion dollars in arms and training to rebels trying to overthrow the Syrian government.
I wonder what Iran and Russia would do if the US started attacking Syrian air defenses.
