Four years in to Syria’s civil war and same ideas keep coming up. This week, buffer zones were back in the news as they have been periodically since they were first floated in 2012 as to way to protect the civilian population from Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But the timing of the latest announcements — a one-two punch with first Turkey, now Jordan revealing plans to carve out zones inside Syria — suggests an effort by regional actors to send a message to Washington D.C.: With or without the U.S., it’s time to intervene in the conflict.
“I find the timing of it really interesting,” said Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland who studies Shia Islamist militias in Syria. “First the Turks have come out with this, then Jordan comes out with it. And there’s been this similar talk in certain segments of DC that are, let’s say, not very pro-Obama in terms of how Syria policy has been executed.”
Read Full Article »