Sunday, August 25, 2013

Think Defence Blog on Syria.


via Think Defence.
Would it be enough to use TLAM’s to take out much of the regimes air force and infrastructure then use Patriots on the boarder to enforce no fly zone’s for rebel controlled areas then start arming the moderate parts of the opposition forces as well as imbedding SF. I am sure such a policy could turn the tide quite quickly even without allied air strikes?
The 800 pound gorilla in the room is obviously the regimes supplies of chemical weapons. Could we secure these amid the type of anarchy we saw in Iraq and Libya after the fall of those regimes? The US estimated it would take 50,000 troops to secure these stockpiles. How quickly could we mount such a large operation and would the regime disperse them when it saw us building up for an invasion.
Could securing the boarders and enforcing a no fly zone with patriots help us to stop any way ward chemical weapons from leaving Syria?
That's just a snippet (read it all here) but the thing that bothers me about this is that I always get the feeling that when Europeans talk about military actions, its always with a nod toward US participation in a fight that they deem necessary.

For example, in the first paragraph he talks about TLAM strikes into Syria.  The Brits have TLAMS but they don't appear to have a large stockpile, via Wikipedia...
On 19 March 2011, 124 Tomahawk missiles[11] were fired by U.S. and British forces (122 US, 2 British)[citation needed] against at least 20 Libyantargets around Tripoli and Misrata.[12
So in Libya, that most joint of military missions...a mission that the Europeans almost pushed us into, the Brits fired 2 missiles to our 122 on the opening night.  Lets be honest.  That's American firepower at play, not British.

Those Patriot Missile Batteries that he's talking about are from the US Army.  He talks about assembling a force of 50,000 troops to secure the chemical stockpiles but even if the Brits were to provide half the force it would strain their Army to the breaking point.

The Brits are great allies but this nonsense has to stop.  Europeans complain that we act as if we're the world police yet at the same time act as if they're the final arbitrators of a just cause and that our forces exist to serve their needs when they see a fight worth having.

Perhaps I'm cold and heartless but I could actually care less about Syrians dying in a chemical attack.  Death is death, whether from a bullet, a knife or a chemical attack.  We're dealing with barbaric people on both sides of that conflict and what the American/European people fail to realize is that this is just another example of sectarian violence mixed in with a civil war.  Islam might be peaceful but the different sects of that religion are from from it.

Syria is none of our business.  The Middle East is toxic and we should declare it a quarantine zone.   If  the Brits and the rest of the EU want the Syria fight then I say have a good one...but we'll sit this out.