Opinion
Small move with strategic significance
For the whole region, the US`s withdrawal is of strategic significance.
The withdrawal of US troops from Syria has shaken up the whole political and security situation in Syria as well as the Levant and spurred the geostrategic game changing here. Turkish army has made incursion into Syrian territory to crush Kurdish forces YPG in the northeast. Syria's government army has moved to the border to fight the Turks there on the request of the YPG. Soon after that, Turkey and the US reached a truce agreement for 120 hours. Turkey got its goal to push the YPG out of a so-called Security Corridor along its border with Syria. Without the presence of US troops, the war and the fight against the Islamic State as well as the geostrategic game among world and regional powers here are no longer the same.
For the US, withdrawing troops from Syria is only a slight movement because there were not many US troops there and they only traveled a few distances to Syria's neighboring Iraq. But for the whole region, this move is of strategic significance. It would mean the US decided to restrain its political, security and military engagements and commitments to this region despite deep concerns of its allies in and outside this region. US President Donald Trump has his own arguments to defend this decision but America's allies all don't want to understand and accept it.
The US troops’ withdrawal from Syria give Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and Turkey has left more room for political, security and military maneuvering of the whole Syria question. They face new challenges but reach more influences and decisive powers in Syria to determine the political future of this country. It is like a game changer for Russia, Iran and the Syrian government. Russia, especially, would gain stronger positions as world and regional power.
This US move marked the outset of a new time in the US relationships with its allies throughout the world. Like it or not, there are three facts they must recognize and accept.
First, the United States is not for them the same strategic and traditional ally they have had so far. That also means that the so-called Western Bloc is in its process of collapse.
Second, they can't continue to trust and rely on the US any more. They lost the US as their political and military leader in the world and cannot find a proper replacement.
Third, the political and security order in this region and in the world is also changing to another possibly more favorable to the external powers of or those opposed to the Western Bloc.
The US had around 2,000 US troops in Syria. Photo: Rodi Said/Reuters
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The US troops’ withdrawal from Syria give Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and Turkey has left more room for political, security and military maneuvering of the whole Syria question. They face new challenges but reach more influences and decisive powers in Syria to determine the political future of this country. It is like a game changer for Russia, Iran and the Syrian government. Russia, especially, would gain stronger positions as world and regional power.
This US move marked the outset of a new time in the US relationships with its allies throughout the world. Like it or not, there are three facts they must recognize and accept.
First, the United States is not for them the same strategic and traditional ally they have had so far. That also means that the so-called Western Bloc is in its process of collapse.
Second, they can't continue to trust and rely on the US any more. They lost the US as their political and military leader in the world and cannot find a proper replacement.
Third, the political and security order in this region and in the world is also changing to another possibly more favorable to the external powers of or those opposed to the Western Bloc.
