Updated 11/7/2015
Among the various mixed signals the administration is sending about its plan to put "several dozens" but "fewer than 50" Special Operations troops on the ground in Syria, not "advisors" but nevertheless in an "advisory capacity", is one that goes along with the way I've been trying my hardest to understand Obama's policy:
Not that they won't participate on the war side, from their post inside an opposition group headquarters in northern Syria, though they won't be going anywhere else or even on patrols; their job is
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| "A Marine monitors the flight line out of the rear of a MV-22B Osprey after completing fast-rope and rappelling training with Marine Special Operations Command, near Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, June 23, 2015." U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Orlando Perez. Via Task & Purpose. |
The move was meant to bolster diplomatic efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry, who on Friday reached an agreement in Vienna with countries with opposing stakes to explore “a nationwide cease-fire” and ask the United Nations to oversee the revision of the Syrian Constitution and then new elections.That is, the purpose of the thing is part of the peace strategy, not the war strategy, to upgrade and maintain the administration's influence on the situation as these important and even slightly hopeful talks, now including Iran, proceed, in the same way the Russian moves in Syria are meant.
Not that they won't participate on the war side, from their post inside an opposition group headquarters in northern Syria, though they won't be going anywhere else or even on patrols; their job is
