U.S. Deploying Ground Troops In Combat Roles In Syria

The United States has crossed a line in its military involvement in the Syrian civil war, as part of its war on ISIS and other military factions in that conflict that the Obama administration adamantly refused to cross.

In particular, the U.S. has deployed ground troops including an artillery unit, as direct ground combatants in Syria.

I am honestly stunned that this major escalation of U.S. involvement from providing air support to allied troops and providing training and intelligence support to allied troops, to being ground combatants in one of the most complex civil wars in decades, has not even been mentioned by major news outlets, only to be picked up by specialty magazine Military.com.

Ground troops are far more in harms way than air support, so casualties are likely to rise. And, putting troops on the ground in Syria greatly increases the likelihood of unintended encounters with combatant factions in the conflict where the U.S. has not made a clear policy decision that the faction is a friend or a foe. These could include encounters with Russian forces and forces of the Syrian regime that we have condemned for war crimes.

Despite President Trump's decidedly warmer stances towards Russia than President Obama's administration, there is still no indications whatsoever, that U.S. and Russian forces are able to "play nice" with each other in this complex conventional military encounter. They have not coordinated well with each other in this conflict in the past.