Punter.
Nobody needs to conquer it IMHO and from a military perspective none of it makes sense.
For the moment we have:
- TSK shooting it out with both the Assad regime and Iranian Militias;
- Iran supplying significant volumes of materiel to the Afrin defenders. This materiel would include the rockets now being fired by the YPG into Turkey and the Koncurs ATGMs;
- Al Qaeda shooting down a SU25 with a Manpad that arrived on the scene through Turkey; at some point in time;
- Russia closing then opening Afrin airspace;
- All sorts of people including Yazidi and Christian militias rushing to the aid of Afrin and travelling through Regime lines with the blessing of Putin, Assad and Khamenei;
- Christian churches in Afrin and elsewhere pleading with the Pope to not grant Erdogan and audience or at least to admonish Erdogan;
- Erdogan threatening the United States;
- Erdogan's key adviser threatening to break the Greek PM's (and his ministers) arms and legs over a commemorative reef laying ceremony ;
- Someone within Assad's militia deciding to shell the US HQ ..... but which party (if any) was behind it?
- Massive US retaliation killing 100 or so of Assad's militia and destroying 8 tanks;
- In lieu of the US response Erdogan now shifitng his Manbij threats to an Idlib conquest in cahoots with Al Qaeda terrorists and other extremist militias;
- Turkish soldiers on YouTube pictured beating the crap out of militia fighters who refuse to face the YPG on the front line.
- About 150 military deaths on each side and a similar number of civilian deaths about 3x that number seriously wounded.
- Turkey allegedly targeting schools, historic sites , water purification plants and the Red Crescent HQ (or perhaps just shooting wildly).
- At least 3 Leopard and 3 M60 based Main Battle tanks destroyed, at least 2 APCs destroyed and 2 captured and who knows how many technicals and utes destroyed.
And no end in sight.
My current view is that the Syrians need to arrange a discussion table FOR THEMSELVES with no others present. What else can I say?
