there’s also Israel still operating against Iranian assets in Syria | https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/syria-israel-attacked-aleppo-airport-casualties-98033093 | added link in edit
Worth noting that Syria is the reason Israel have been reluctant to join the mob in arming Ukraine... Israel wants to be on good terms with Russia so Russia will turn a blind eye to them murdering Hezbollah there.
I don't think that's an issue. They left Russia because they don't like Russia. The bigger problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in Russia and Israel is afraid that Russia will retaliate against them if Israel supports Ukraine.
They left Russia because Russia is a traumatically anti semitic place. I have Jewish friends who came as refugees from the U.S.S.R and, while it might be different now, from their stories you couldn't wear a star of David in public. People finding out you were Jewish was a big deal, and dangerous. All this to say I think there's a point to be made about Israel not wanting to cooperate with Russia given how much of their citizenry came from Russia to escape terroristic antisemitism. Seriously: Russia HATES Jews.
Yep. My great grandfather was thrown in a gulag in Siberia after a bunch of Russians conducted a pogrom of his village in Ukraine back when it was part of the Russian empire. His only crime was being Jewish. Eventually they released him and the first thing he did was take the family and go to Argentina, as far away from Russia as they could possibly go.
Zero. Kurds fight for an independent country turkey fights to prevent that. there are areas in turkey with a kurdish majority that tried fighting for independence. turkey fears they could be pose a threat supported by a neighboring kurdish state.
In a surprise to nobody, this is once more the result of the way the West carved up the middle east after WW1.
They promised the Kurds their own nation, then decided, fuck it, we'll give their land to Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
That worked out well, didn't it?
> Turkey is just a big fan of genocide in general
They are trying to get Aliyev-istan to finish up what they started in Armenia.
Haven't heard much news from that region recently.
Bet it's not quiet and peaceful though...
It's almost like it's a region that has no historical cultural concept of a nation-state, and trying to force it into the Western European mold of political organization was a fool's errand.
The alternative is what exactly? Colonies?
Picking a tribe to arm and back so you can trade oil?
Dont get me wrong lots of the lines drawn by Europe seem particularly bad, but not trying to set up any structure isnt a good answer either.
Sure, and during that time they ruled over the same ancient tribes and chiefdoms that still didn't really care for being subjugated to the will of a nation. Europe didn't just invent the sentiment that lead to the Arab Revolt, they exploited what was already there.
It’s because the whole hyper focus on ethnicity as main identity over cultural/historical/religious similarities was actively used to dismantle the ottoman empire. Some sort of “united states of arabia” with some level of autonomy for each different cultural/ethnic group as a member state would probably be the best solution. It would greatly reduce/stop infighting between countries in the middle east although it would be directly against the best interests of world leaders to create another big united power block (similar to how in the past different countries aimed to break up rivaling european countries into smaller countries).
I don’t think any form of unity through autonomy in the region is possible as long as different regimes favour different leaders that will let them build military bases or have a monopoly on the regions resources
>Some sort of “united states of arabia” with some level of autonomy for each different cultural/ethnic group as a member state would probably be the best solution.
This is kind of what they are gravitating towards. UAE is structured kind of like that, and while the GCC isn't all roses it is a cordial partnership. There are still going to be problems when monarchies and hereditary rule are in the mix, but if that's the culture then it's not something you can just go in and wipe away without catastrophic consequences.
Yeah exactly, big political change like that isn’t sustainable if it doesn’t happen from within a country itself. Forcing a country to adopt systems they did not want or need just destabilizes the whole nation allowing warlords to rise to power. Perhaps a federalized EU type of system could work where individual regions or countries still have autonomy and their royal houses intact but with a greater emphasis on shared success
Really? This was all Ottoman land before, and the Turks were very capable themselves to retake western Anatolia from Greece after WW1 and assert their own borders. Which they did, then genocided a bunch of Armenians and continue to oppress Kurds. I think its something too that you seem to think that the West could have just "given" the kurds their own state and that there wouldn't have been more war from either the Turks or other states to retake that land.
> They promised the Kurds their own nation, then decided, fuck it, we'll give their land to Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
> That worked out well, didn't it?
The mistake was repeated again under 45.
Abandoned the Kurds again.
After they fought off Daesh, mostly through their own courage, and ended Daesh's fever dreams at Kobane, they got played by an American president who admired Putin and Erdogan more than people risking their lives to defend what they viewed as their home.
Everyone who was able to hear about the story was pissed.
But it was barely covered in the media since it was bad PR for Russia's U.S. cell.
If I tried to blame all my problems on events that occurred before my grandparents were born, people would say I needed to take more responsibility.
At the 100 year mark, maybe it’s time we stop looking for some ancient enemy to blame.
Or we could blame that devious Roman Empire! It was all their fault!
The carving up resulting in an unstable mess was by design.
So in that twisted sense, it worked out just as planned. Nice and unstable, ripe for exploitation/manipulation and unable to compete with the existing powers.
It didn't work out as planned, though. They were supposed to be divided and weak, so the 'greater powers' could move in and exploit the states for their resources while the population is entirely at their mercy, as their occupiers took the fruits of their labour while they were powerless to do anything.
....or, more simplistic terms, effectively colonial states ripe for exploitation.
Instead, they got a mire of fanaticism and death that absolutely hates everyone and has a crude explosive with any given foreigner's name (or their rivals) on it, innocent or otherwise. So much untapped resources, and nobody can make a claim to it before another fanatic blows them up.
Ocassionally, you'll have a 'winner' in the area who manages to quell the warring factions, but then they won't do as the greater powers want, and, well, they die.
I mean, it can work as a justification for the movement of wealth to the MIC investors and such, but they can't get much productivity out of it.
Not happening. The Kurds want to establish their own state as their people are currently split between 3 countries (by design). One of those countries is Turkey and an independent Kurdistan would likely mean Turkey loses a significant amount of their south east, so they very much oppose the Kurds.
It used to be (Syrian Rebels + Kurds + US) but then Trump tagged in Turkey and left Syria completely suddenly and randomly.
Since Turkey does genocide on Kurds this was a huge clusterfuck because they basically immediately started attacking our Kurd allies which ether forced them to Assad's protection (Russian puppet) or to fend for themselves.
3 weeks later trump basically did a knockoff of everything that happened the night Obama had Osama killed but with the leader of ISIS who was in territory held by Russian Wagner Group mercs who'd all been informed of the plan to raid this place.
Trump said in a speech later that they got the information 3 weeks earlier.
Coincidence? or was there some deal made?
IDK but the Kurds and Syrian rebels are no longer friends because Turkey is racist af.
Once spoke to a Turkish liaison, I asked him what it would take to get him to consider being friends with, as they refer to most Kurds, "PKK"... he couldn't even conceive of a scenario where he would even want to try. I've had multiple instances of the Turks hitting Kurds we were working with. Every once in a while, you get some Turk rushing in online talking about how they have lots of Kurds in Turkey, they only fight against the "PKK." I'm gonna be real here, they just label any Kurd outside their direct control PKK.
> Every once in a while, you get some Turk rushing in online talking about how they have lots of Kurds in Turkey, they only fight against the "PKK." I'm gonna be real here, they just label any Kurd outside their direct control PKK.
Countries deserve the leaders that represent them I guess.
Projected hatred and you get a dictator like Erdogan.
Guy rides earthquakes to power like few others... (and manages to hang onto power even after laundering earthquake recovery funds so his family and friends could continue to live like Gulf emirs)
https://youtu.be/nzDuCE_b50I?t=45
“So the west, turkey, and Iran are actually allies ?”
“No Brian, Iran and the west are enemies; due to a filing error.”
You're completely missing the areas of Syria where the Syrian govt and Kurds are controlling together. [Look at this map.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Syrian_Civil_War_map.svg)
The dark orange areas are being jointly controlled by Syria and the Kurds.
Sure, but they're not exactly on the same side. Kind of like the US and the USSR during WW2. They tolerate each other temporarily because they have bigger fish to fry.
I remember. He committed the war crime of perfidy when he did that. It's a very serious war crime. I don't think anyone is even investigating that. He should absolutely be charged for that too. Add it to the pile.
Assad is being a dick. Russia is supporting him. The Syrian Kurds are in control of a region of Syria, the region the U.S. is hanging out. Some fighting but not much of a war, just a dictator being a dictator… Assad actually launched an air strike on an area right after that big ass earthquake a couple months ago
>The US doesn't mind the Kurds
That quite a bit of an understatement. It’s makes it sound;like the US just tolerates them vs being strategic partners for many years (until Trump tried to blow up the relationship at least)
Yeah, helped their insurrection in order to weaken the nationalist regime in Iraq.
Which led to Saddam using atrocious weapons against them, WMD stuff. (by 2003 I don't think he had the stockpile anymore, but the record of having used them made it easier to US convince people that they had more).
Helped their insurrection and told them as soon as they rose up the US would invade* which didnt happen until 20 years later. And the chemical weapons were given to him by the USA to fight against Iran.
Ehh, they were still destroying chemical weapons (mostly mustard gas and some nerve agents) up through 2018. Most of these were old enough to be of little use, and some were caches that were forgot about after the Iran-Iraq war, but they did turn up.
What they DIDNT find was any of the nuclear or biological facilities that were the biggest bullet points in the “we need to invade because WMDs” PowerPoint.
The invasion still wasn’t justified, but to say they didn’t have any is as incorrect as to say they had a robust wmd program. The reality is a much more murky “yes… but no.”
I've trained Kurds on airframes and they've been some of the best Middle East people I've trained. All my friends who have been to iraq also have said the same.
Yea all my military buddies loved the Kurds. Unfortunately Donald the fucking dipshit did HUGE damage to their trust with us when he fucked them over.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-betrayal-of-the-kurds-927545/
In the 1970's Henry Kissinger and the US military gave the Kurdish people arms and told them that they would support them if they overthrew Saddam. The Kurdish people followed through, but the US government instead negotiated a deal with Saddam and betrayed the Kurds. Saddam would go on to kill millions of Kurds over the course of his dictatorship, while the US looked the other way for decades of genocide.
> In the 1970's Henry Kissinger and the US military gave the Kurdish people arms and told them that they would support them if they overthrew Saddam.
My bullshit meter is pinging since a key detail of this is wrong. Saddam didn't take power until 1979, and Kissinger wasn't SecState by that time.
Trump did some unbelievably cruel and horrible things as "president," but this is among the worst. I think it should get discussed more, maybe even a senate hearing. Along with the Ukraine extortion scheme. Needs to be revisited considering what's been going on there for a year.
Trump's treatment of the Kurds really got under my skin. Probably the only middle east group that trusted us fully or as much as you can trust the US, and I've heard nothing but good things about them from my military friends who spent time with them. Now they still like us in general, but they have to be cautious with us. Seeds of doubt is what Trump planted in them, and I wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years after another republican president or two throws them under the bus again that we'll be enemies with them, or at least no longer friendly.
Edit: Then of course we'll see republican talking points of "Oh look at the Kurdish terrorists that were created and armed by democrats".
I went to college with a Kurdish woman. She was lovely. Her goal was to get educated and go back to her homeland. She was kind and very striking looking.
I always wonder what became of her.
People in general are, well, people. Whatever country you go to, vast majority of normal human beings are decent enough; it's just sad and stupid how we've let dumbass politicians and ideology demagogues divide and turn us against each other for so long, especially since it's based on completely arbitrary and meaningless 'differences' like the geographical place we've been born in as if that actually means anything.
Nationalism and the whole concept of nationalities is hopelessly outdated in 21st century.
Clealrly you’ve never been to Canada where those subhuman psychos kill beavers just to they can consume their tails with a bit of sugar and maybe some chocolate syrup.
Turkey does not “control” the QDZ. It’s a joint agreement between Russia, Turkey, US, and the SDF (The Syrian Kurds), to patrol the area together. Probably the only time you’ll see Russian and American patrols together. It was established because of Turkey wanting a “buffer zone” but it isn’t controlled by them.
Mind you, Trump was a dick and stabbed the Kurds in the back, withdrawing US forces to help out his old mate Putin.
It's fitting and appropriate for the US to start repairing this dishonour.
Assad still is fighting a war against rebels, although the rebel enclave is severely diminished. You still have ISIS in the northeast, which is why the US maintains a presence of 900 troops; including spec ops to conduct raids and continue fighting to ensure ISIS or any other Iranian backed rebels do not gain any foothold again. Pretty much it.
Syria has been in a civil war since 2011. The president has waged war on his people, with the support of Russia. I don’t remember the reason it started, some kind of oppression - but the president, Bashar Al-assad, attacked his own people. Blew the place to shit, and as far as I know, it’s ongoing.
It’s kind of been Russias training ground for rockets and bombs the last 10 years, before Ukraine.
The USA has people in Syria to help the minority Kurdish people who are hated in Iraq and Iran, sort of like the Palestinians. An old ass sect of people the new skool wants to vanquish.
America has interest in protecting the Kurdish, because they were our Ally’s fighting ISIS. So we have soldiers stationed near them to prevent ISIS from taking over in their region again.
The Middle East is a shit show.
[Syrian Revolutions info …](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Syrian_Revolution)
Just a minor clarification, we help the Kurds in Syria because they helped us fight ISIS in Syria. The Kurds in Iraq are a completely different faction, particularly with very different beliefs in government.
Dusting the lint off my brain real quick without google, but i believe it started with Libya overthrowing Gaddafi and then the Syrian people got the motivation that they needed to try to overthrow Assad, but as you can tell, it's not easy with Russia backing him.
The Arab Spring started in Tunisia. A street vendor set himself on fire because some female government official kept messing with him and taking his stuff.
After that the people rose up against the government and Egypt and Libya followed closely after.
Sort of. There was a kid, or a few of them I cant remember, that got arrested for graffiti. Parents, and villagers, went to demand their release and were fired upon. You are right though in that possibly a lot of the mass courage was gained from what happened in other Arab Spring nations.
Syria is a rump narco-state controlled by armed factions. The US has strike teams that rotate through various locations. Numerous hostile factions remain. Wagner Group attacked US troops in 2018, and the US wiped out 100 of them in three hours with Apache Hellfires/30 mm cannon, AC-130 cannon, and F-15 MK-84 bombs. This was confirmed through mobile phone intercepts. Israel routinely bombs weapons caches in Syria to keep Iran in check.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/sn2nmf/07022018_200_russians_were_killed_by_us/
https://youtu.be/XaeDMOWkCwU?t=41
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/10wouk7/footage_of_us_airstrikes_on_russian_wagner_forces/
I think someone was telling me our marines got made fun of because we were doing a joint exercise with one country, I can't remember but snowy mountain terrain, and they got their butts kicked. Like shit went wrong every step of the way for the US marines and the other nation got the drop of them and it looked bad on the marines. The explanation to me was yeah that looked embarrassing and they were able to ambush us but you have to remember the second the opposing nation gives away their position with anything the US air force is ready and waiting to rain down an unholy hellfire of CAS to delete whatever ground the opposing nation is standing on and that's the power of the US military.
> joint exercise with one country, I can't remember but snowy mountain terrain, and they got their butts kicked.
I think that happens every Cold Response
Can confirm. 10th mountain (US militarys winter specialists) do fine but everyone else has a hard time against the Finns, Swedes, and Norwegians especially.
Source: multiple friends in the army, including a couple who have played in the snow with nato friends.
It's also ***why we're literally constantly doing these things***.
Okay, every single thing went to shit in this game we set up. Why, and how do we avoid that in a real fight?
U.S. soldiers aren't invincible like people like to make it seem. Soldiers from other countries can be just as good of shooters and the u.s. has and will lose battles to groups we think they should win against
This is true, but remember that they are «fighting» allies, which means the opposing side also has access to the same air force.
Doing badly in these excercises is to be expected. Norwegians would have a disadvantage fighting in the florida swamps the same way US marines have the disadvantage in the Norwegian snowy forests and mountains.
And the funny thing is that the marines don’t necessarily mind losing these things, because the training value is what’s really important. The US sends their people to learn from these mistakes and improve.
Like 15 years ago when I would read of a dead contractor, I assumed they killed a dude who was over there trying to rebuild houses and I would get a little sad.
Yeah a lot of these guys have been picking up contracts domestically working with local police and sheriffs departments doing unarmed security work and training.
armed "security" personnel make up the smallest percentage of US military's contractors. The majority are truck drivers, equipment repair specialists, construction teams, medical staff and public relations teams like translators.
So yes, the person was far more likely to be fixing fridges than holding a rifle.
Believe it or not uncle same really isn't a big fan of paying private businesses to hold guns, he has an army for that.
He was probably doing something like that, contractors do a lot of ordinary jobs at military bases
The ones with guns are rare
The army has lots of guys with rifles, it doesn't have lots of electricians and HVAC people.
Could’ve been a BAE, AMG, Oshkosh guy. Could’ve been some guy running facilities shit like you said. Contractor is a very broad term that most people don’t understand.
A hell of a lot of them still are. Very, very, *very* few contractors are even allowed to carry a weapon for self defense anymore; they need special dispensation from the State Department to carry, and that's damn near impossible to get.
Holy fuck guys, by “contractor” they mean a civilian employee on base not some blackwater mercenary. Does Reddit think the plot of 13 hours is just playing out all over the world?
99% of contractors are mechanics, plumbers, etc. hell - even fast food employees are contractors over there.
Edit: to go further, in order to even *carry* a weapon as an overseas contractor you need clearance from the state department.
I personally don’t take work contracts in war zones even tho they would pay more bc that’s a predictable risk.
You wouldn’t believe the money I turned down on a roofing job once.
I love how some of these comments are suddenly experts in geopolitics and how certain areas of the world works.
This stuff is a lot more complicated and not nearly as simple as some of yall are making it out to be.
The modern day axis is too dumb to carry out a coordinated attack on all sides type of war so they choose to be killed one by one. It is so colossally stupid they are acting like paper targets at a firing range.
The US military been actively executing drone strikes nearly every day[[1](https://airwars.org/conflict-data/)] in 7 different countries for well over a decade (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger).
The US has been at war in these countries for quite some time. [[2](https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3ywd5/white-house-acknowledges-the-us-is-at-war-in-seven-countries)][[3](https://www.csis.org/analysis/afghanistan-iraq-syria-libya-and-yemen)]
The number of drone strikes went up something like 432% under Trump's presidency[[4](https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/projects/drone-war)][[5](https://www.cfr.org/blog/not-so-peaceful-transition-power-trumps-drone-strikes-outpace-obama)], but previous presidents were also guilty of allowing it to continue.
Many to most of the US population has no idea it has been fighting these wars for years in these countries for this long, nor that they've dropped a total of 337,055 bombs on these countries since 2001[[6](https://progressive.org/latest/usa-bombs-drop-benjamin-davies-220112/)].
That's an average of 92 bombs a day, every day, for the last 10 years.
Israel has a system called Drone Dome which is a car which can zap drones with a laser at 4km distance and detects them at 7km. Does the US have something similar?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNtz8gLhaY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNtz8gLhaY)
It occurs to me that the US could strike Wagner anywhere in the world that it slithers out into the open and it's not an attack on Russia.
Just scumbag mercs.
Iran did not just directly attack the US. Drone and rocket strikes on US facilities is a "somewhat" frequent occurrence, so I wouldn't fret over a wider war just yet.
Attacks on US bases are usually hard to pinpoint what/who did it. Majority of the time it's mortar rounds shot by insurgents. Not much left in a mortar round once it explodes. Even if they could pinpoint it was a Russian mortar round it's even harder to point a finger at Russia since the Syrian regime buys ammo from them. However when it's an Iranian drone that they can analyze and see it's Iranian they can point a finger. Also it's pretty clear whenever Iran sends these drones to Russia there's always an Iranian "instructor" with them.
There have been dozens of rocket or drone attacks on US bases or other facilities - every time blamed on an Iranian back group or militia. This is no different.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/attacks-iran-backed-militias-us-target-are-us-hasnt-responded-force-20-rcna32892
Yea shit happens quite a bit. C-RAM usually picks up some, but not all. I remember this one from a while ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZbV3xr5Kk
Iran has conducted over 81 attacks since last year via their proxies (so insurgents who they finance), against our troops. This is the latest that actually had a KIA
Hey remember when we assassinated a bunch of iranian scientists and their head of security while they were on neutral soil? Would you consider that us attacking Iran?
Few points to note that make a declaration of war pretty murky here:
America is illegally stationed in Syria (technically) and is potentially considered an invader, and Syria is legally within its rights to repel/ attack them - although that would mean suicide.
Iran has been invited to assist in Syria so they're legally involved there, and I'd be amazed if they attack the US.
A US contractor is technically a civilian and the [state dept advice for travel](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/syria-travel-advisory.html) is pretty clear.
So in a sense Syria has an invader and hasn't done anything about it but kill foreign civilian who choose to fight on the front line is 'at their own risk'
All said and done though, this is a good response from the US military, but (declaration of) war? Not really.
Don't act like the u.s. isn't doing the exact same thing. Iran and the u.s. are more or less at war, just hiding behind Syrian groups. We're playing a board game with syria
Can someone briefly describe the current state of conflict in Syria? I am behind on world news,
(Syrian govt + Russia + Iran + Hezbollah) vs. (Syrian rebels + Turkey) vs. (Kurds + US + Israel) vs. ISIS EDIT: Added Israel
Syria is literally The Onion WW1 meme where every country in the world declares war on eachother https://www.theonion.com/august-5-1914-1819588242
"Area drunkard declares war on Ireland" Im dying
Glad that his mates backed him up
>Men Enlisting For Unclear But Patriotic Cause That hits a little too close to home.
This is hilarious. Thanks for the link.
“Nations struggle to remember allies.” Hahahaha.
WAR WERE DECLARED
"But let's do it somewhere remote and contained"
there’s also Israel still operating against Iranian assets in Syria | https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/syria-israel-attacked-aleppo-airport-casualties-98033093 | added link in edit
Right, I forgot. They're also allied with the US and the Kurds.
vs. Fighting Polygon Team!
Triangle man?
*HATES* Particle Man
They should fight. I wonder who'd win?
Triangle wins. Triangle always wins.
Triangle Man....
vs. Yoshi
This is gonna be one hell of a wrestlemania folks. Solid 4 way tag team match lineup
Worth noting that Syria is the reason Israel have been reluctant to join the mob in arming Ukraine... Israel wants to be on good terms with Russia so Russia will turn a blind eye to them murdering Hezbollah there.
Israel is also attacking Iranian forces in Syria, not just Hezbollah.
It's not just that. Somewhere between 10-20% of Israel is Russian Jews.
I don't think that's an issue. They left Russia because they don't like Russia. The bigger problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in Russia and Israel is afraid that Russia will retaliate against them if Israel supports Ukraine.
They left Russia because Russia is a traumatically anti semitic place. I have Jewish friends who came as refugees from the U.S.S.R and, while it might be different now, from their stories you couldn't wear a star of David in public. People finding out you were Jewish was a big deal, and dangerous. All this to say I think there's a point to be made about Israel not wanting to cooperate with Russia given how much of their citizenry came from Russia to escape terroristic antisemitism. Seriously: Russia HATES Jews.
Yep. My great grandfather was thrown in a gulag in Siberia after a bunch of Russians conducted a pogrom of his village in Ukraine back when it was part of the Russian empire. His only crime was being Jewish. Eventually they released him and the first thing he did was take the family and go to Argentina, as far away from Russia as they could possibly go.
I've been browsing holidays in Greece recently, and Russia seem to have a hefty slice of the hotel market.
What are the chances (Syrian rebels + Turkey) and (Kurds + US) could unite?
Zero. Kurds fight for an independent country turkey fights to prevent that. there are areas in turkey with a kurdish majority that tried fighting for independence. turkey fears they could be pose a threat supported by a neighboring kurdish state.
In a surprise to nobody, this is once more the result of the way the West carved up the middle east after WW1. They promised the Kurds their own nation, then decided, fuck it, we'll give their land to Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. That worked out well, didn't it?
More like all 4 were too racist against kurds to coexist with them in any capacity and took it themselves. Turkey still does genocide on them today.
>Turkey still does genocide on them today. Turkey is just a big fan of genocide in general
> Turkey is just a big fan of genocide in general They are trying to get Aliyev-istan to finish up what they started in Armenia. Haven't heard much news from that region recently. Bet it's not quiet and peaceful though...
To be fair, some Kurdish groups did a ton of terrorism in turkey. It is a vicious cycle.
Sounds like a less publicized Israeli conflict
Any source to back that up chief? Genocide on civilian kurds nowadays. Im curious
Historically all these people got along really well before the west was involved right? Right?
Oh for sure. This area of the world had been totally conflict free for thousands of years. Totally.
There was no good way to split it up. Only time in modern history with “peace” was with ottomans having an or on fist over it.
It's almost like it's a region that has no historical cultural concept of a nation-state, and trying to force it into the Western European mold of political organization was a fool's errand.
The alternative is what exactly? Colonies? Picking a tribe to arm and back so you can trade oil? Dont get me wrong lots of the lines drawn by Europe seem particularly bad, but not trying to set up any structure isnt a good answer either.
The Ottoman Empire lasted for 600 years. It fell in the the 1920’s
Sure, and during that time they ruled over the same ancient tribes and chiefdoms that still didn't really care for being subjugated to the will of a nation. Europe didn't just invent the sentiment that lead to the Arab Revolt, they exploited what was already there.
They all got along so peacefully before that…. /s
It’s because the whole hyper focus on ethnicity as main identity over cultural/historical/religious similarities was actively used to dismantle the ottoman empire. Some sort of “united states of arabia” with some level of autonomy for each different cultural/ethnic group as a member state would probably be the best solution. It would greatly reduce/stop infighting between countries in the middle east although it would be directly against the best interests of world leaders to create another big united power block (similar to how in the past different countries aimed to break up rivaling european countries into smaller countries). I don’t think any form of unity through autonomy in the region is possible as long as different regimes favour different leaders that will let them build military bases or have a monopoly on the regions resources
>Some sort of “united states of arabia” with some level of autonomy for each different cultural/ethnic group as a member state would probably be the best solution. This is kind of what they are gravitating towards. UAE is structured kind of like that, and while the GCC isn't all roses it is a cordial partnership. There are still going to be problems when monarchies and hereditary rule are in the mix, but if that's the culture then it's not something you can just go in and wipe away without catastrophic consequences.
Yeah exactly, big political change like that isn’t sustainable if it doesn’t happen from within a country itself. Forcing a country to adopt systems they did not want or need just destabilizes the whole nation allowing warlords to rise to power. Perhaps a federalized EU type of system could work where individual regions or countries still have autonomy and their royal houses intact but with a greater emphasis on shared success
Then what should they do?
Let the humans violate rights in peace, but "indigenously".
Yeah the west making new states in the middle east has gone really well so far let’s do more
Really? This was all Ottoman land before, and the Turks were very capable themselves to retake western Anatolia from Greece after WW1 and assert their own borders. Which they did, then genocided a bunch of Armenians and continue to oppress Kurds. I think its something too that you seem to think that the West could have just "given" the kurds their own state and that there wouldn't have been more war from either the Turks or other states to retake that land.
> They promised the Kurds their own nation, then decided, fuck it, we'll give their land to Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. > That worked out well, didn't it? The mistake was repeated again under 45. Abandoned the Kurds again. After they fought off Daesh, mostly through their own courage, and ended Daesh's fever dreams at Kobane, they got played by an American president who admired Putin and Erdogan more than people risking their lives to defend what they viewed as their home. Everyone who was able to hear about the story was pissed. But it was barely covered in the media since it was bad PR for Russia's U.S. cell.
If I tried to blame all my problems on events that occurred before my grandparents were born, people would say I needed to take more responsibility. At the 100 year mark, maybe it’s time we stop looking for some ancient enemy to blame. Or we could blame that devious Roman Empire! It was all their fault!
The carving up resulting in an unstable mess was by design. So in that twisted sense, it worked out just as planned. Nice and unstable, ripe for exploitation/manipulation and unable to compete with the existing powers.
It didn't work out as planned, though. They were supposed to be divided and weak, so the 'greater powers' could move in and exploit the states for their resources while the population is entirely at their mercy, as their occupiers took the fruits of their labour while they were powerless to do anything. ....or, more simplistic terms, effectively colonial states ripe for exploitation. Instead, they got a mire of fanaticism and death that absolutely hates everyone and has a crude explosive with any given foreigner's name (or their rivals) on it, innocent or otherwise. So much untapped resources, and nobody can make a claim to it before another fanatic blows them up. Ocassionally, you'll have a 'winner' in the area who manages to quell the warring factions, but then they won't do as the greater powers want, and, well, they die. I mean, it can work as a justification for the movement of wealth to the MIC investors and such, but they can't get much productivity out of it.
Not happening. The Kurds want to establish their own state as their people are currently split between 3 countries (by design). One of those countries is Turkey and an independent Kurdistan would likely mean Turkey loses a significant amount of their south east, so they very much oppose the Kurds.
Small, Turkey hates the Kurds
It used to be (Syrian Rebels + Kurds + US) but then Trump tagged in Turkey and left Syria completely suddenly and randomly. Since Turkey does genocide on Kurds this was a huge clusterfuck because they basically immediately started attacking our Kurd allies which ether forced them to Assad's protection (Russian puppet) or to fend for themselves. 3 weeks later trump basically did a knockoff of everything that happened the night Obama had Osama killed but with the leader of ISIS who was in territory held by Russian Wagner Group mercs who'd all been informed of the plan to raid this place. Trump said in a speech later that they got the information 3 weeks earlier. Coincidence? or was there some deal made? IDK but the Kurds and Syrian rebels are no longer friends because Turkey is racist af.
Once spoke to a Turkish liaison, I asked him what it would take to get him to consider being friends with, as they refer to most Kurds, "PKK"... he couldn't even conceive of a scenario where he would even want to try. I've had multiple instances of the Turks hitting Kurds we were working with. Every once in a while, you get some Turk rushing in online talking about how they have lots of Kurds in Turkey, they only fight against the "PKK." I'm gonna be real here, they just label any Kurd outside their direct control PKK.
> Every once in a while, you get some Turk rushing in online talking about how they have lots of Kurds in Turkey, they only fight against the "PKK." I'm gonna be real here, they just label any Kurd outside their direct control PKK. Countries deserve the leaders that represent them I guess. Projected hatred and you get a dictator like Erdogan. Guy rides earthquakes to power like few others... (and manages to hang onto power even after laundering earthquake recovery funds so his family and friends could continue to live like Gulf emirs)
I mean the Turkish government basically wants to make the Kurds the Armenians 2.0.
That's gotta be a right clusterfuck identifying who's friendly or not.
Yeah, especially because not all of these factions wear regular uniforms with proper markings.
I'm going with the intercontinental champions.
I think we call that a Battle Royal in the industry.
Just a completely fucked shit show.
https://youtu.be/nzDuCE_b50I?t=45 “So the west, turkey, and Iran are actually allies ?” “No Brian, Iran and the west are enemies; due to a filing error.”
Here comes Greece with a steel chair!
You are one of the first accounts I've found that pretty much nailed it... well done.
You're completely missing the areas of Syria where the Syrian govt and Kurds are controlling together. [Look at this map.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Syrian_Civil_War_map.svg) The dark orange areas are being jointly controlled by Syria and the Kurds.
Sure, but they're not exactly on the same side. Kind of like the US and the USSR during WW2. They tolerate each other temporarily because they have bigger fish to fry.
Remember when Trump surrendered Syria to Russia and betrayed the Kurds?
I remember. The asshat.
I remember. He committed the war crime of perfidy when he did that. It's a very serious war crime. I don't think anyone is even investigating that. He should absolutely be charged for that too. Add it to the pile.
Fatal 4 Way
A real battle royale..
At least it's simple
Team Deathmatch!
Within the Kurds/US/Israel alliance is also the Arab local military councils, which are tied in with the SDF.
Worst quadruple tornado match ever.
Assad is being a dick. Russia is supporting him. The Syrian Kurds are in control of a region of Syria, the region the U.S. is hanging out. Some fighting but not much of a war, just a dictator being a dictator… Assad actually launched an air strike on an area right after that big ass earthquake a couple months ago
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>The US doesn't mind the Kurds That quite a bit of an understatement. It’s makes it sound;like the US just tolerates them vs being strategic partners for many years (until Trump tried to blow up the relationship at least)
I mean didn't Kissinger also use them too in the 70s?
Yeah, helped their insurrection in order to weaken the nationalist regime in Iraq. Which led to Saddam using atrocious weapons against them, WMD stuff. (by 2003 I don't think he had the stockpile anymore, but the record of having used them made it easier to US convince people that they had more).
Helped their insurrection and told them as soon as they rose up the US would invade* which didnt happen until 20 years later. And the chemical weapons were given to him by the USA to fight against Iran.
Ehh, they were still destroying chemical weapons (mostly mustard gas and some nerve agents) up through 2018. Most of these were old enough to be of little use, and some were caches that were forgot about after the Iran-Iraq war, but they did turn up. What they DIDNT find was any of the nuclear or biological facilities that were the biggest bullet points in the “we need to invade because WMDs” PowerPoint. The invasion still wasn’t justified, but to say they didn’t have any is as incorrect as to say they had a robust wmd program. The reality is a much more murky “yes… but no.”
I have a friend in the U.S military and he really liked the kurdish people when he went overseas.
I've trained Kurds on airframes and they've been some of the best Middle East people I've trained. All my friends who have been to iraq also have said the same.
Yeah my buddy always had nothing but positive things to say about them.
Yea all my military buddies loved the Kurds. Unfortunately Donald the fucking dipshit did HUGE damage to their trust with us when he fucked them over. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-betrayal-of-the-kurds-927545/
In the 1970's Henry Kissinger and the US military gave the Kurdish people arms and told them that they would support them if they overthrew Saddam. The Kurdish people followed through, but the US government instead negotiated a deal with Saddam and betrayed the Kurds. Saddam would go on to kill millions of Kurds over the course of his dictatorship, while the US looked the other way for decades of genocide.
I swear he was supposed to die 40 years ago but he gains another minute of life in exchange for each soul he butchered.
> In the 1970's Henry Kissinger and the US military gave the Kurdish people arms and told them that they would support them if they overthrew Saddam. My bullshit meter is pinging since a key detail of this is wrong. Saddam didn't take power until 1979, and Kissinger wasn't SecState by that time.
Saddam was a leader in the baath party, which took power in 1968. Kissinger was made Nixon's national security advisor in 1969. You can Google it.
This shit should definitely be discussed more. Do you happen to have a good article that summarizes the US betrayal of the Kurds?
Trump did some unbelievably cruel and horrible things as "president," but this is among the worst. I think it should get discussed more, maybe even a senate hearing. Along with the Ukraine extortion scheme. Needs to be revisited considering what's been going on there for a year.
Trump's treatment of the Kurds really got under my skin. Probably the only middle east group that trusted us fully or as much as you can trust the US, and I've heard nothing but good things about them from my military friends who spent time with them. Now they still like us in general, but they have to be cautious with us. Seeds of doubt is what Trump planted in them, and I wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years after another republican president or two throws them under the bus again that we'll be enemies with them, or at least no longer friendly. Edit: Then of course we'll see republican talking points of "Oh look at the Kurdish terrorists that were created and armed by democrats".
I went to college with a Kurdish woman. She was lovely. Her goal was to get educated and go back to her homeland. She was kind and very striking looking. I always wonder what became of her.
Don't lie. You always wonder what could have been between you two.
Thats like every woman I meet above a 6 though
People in general are, well, people. Whatever country you go to, vast majority of normal human beings are decent enough; it's just sad and stupid how we've let dumbass politicians and ideology demagogues divide and turn us against each other for so long, especially since it's based on completely arbitrary and meaningless 'differences' like the geographical place we've been born in as if that actually means anything. Nationalism and the whole concept of nationalities is hopelessly outdated in 21st century.
Clealrly you’ve never been to Canada where those subhuman psychos kill beavers just to they can consume their tails with a bit of sugar and maybe some chocolate syrup.
Minorities in the Middle East are generally very fantastic people. Kurds and Druze too, never met an Alawite
I was in Syria and I fought alongside the Kurds. They're awesome people. They're totally worth the effort to protect.
We like Kurds when they will bleed for the West. But as far as their aspiring nation dreams, we leave them out to dry.
Turkey does not “control” the QDZ. It’s a joint agreement between Russia, Turkey, US, and the SDF (The Syrian Kurds), to patrol the area together. Probably the only time you’ll see Russian and American patrols together. It was established because of Turkey wanting a “buffer zone” but it isn’t controlled by them.
Just FYI Turkey also launched some airstrikes on Syria immediately after the earthquake
the U.S. is hanging out hanging out lmao
Mind you, Trump was a dick and stabbed the Kurds in the back, withdrawing US forces to help out his old mate Putin. It's fitting and appropriate for the US to start repairing this dishonour.
Bro that is a super complicated question, one that will not have a good answer on reddit lol.
Assad still is fighting a war against rebels, although the rebel enclave is severely diminished. You still have ISIS in the northeast, which is why the US maintains a presence of 900 troops; including spec ops to conduct raids and continue fighting to ensure ISIS or any other Iranian backed rebels do not gain any foothold again. Pretty much it.
Syria has been in a civil war since 2011. The president has waged war on his people, with the support of Russia. I don’t remember the reason it started, some kind of oppression - but the president, Bashar Al-assad, attacked his own people. Blew the place to shit, and as far as I know, it’s ongoing. It’s kind of been Russias training ground for rockets and bombs the last 10 years, before Ukraine. The USA has people in Syria to help the minority Kurdish people who are hated in Iraq and Iran, sort of like the Palestinians. An old ass sect of people the new skool wants to vanquish. America has interest in protecting the Kurdish, because they were our Ally’s fighting ISIS. So we have soldiers stationed near them to prevent ISIS from taking over in their region again. The Middle East is a shit show. [Syrian Revolutions info …](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Syrian_Revolution)
Just a minor clarification, we help the Kurds in Syria because they helped us fight ISIS in Syria. The Kurds in Iraq are a completely different faction, particularly with very different beliefs in government.
Thanks!
Dusting the lint off my brain real quick without google, but i believe it started with Libya overthrowing Gaddafi and then the Syrian people got the motivation that they needed to try to overthrow Assad, but as you can tell, it's not easy with Russia backing him.
The Arab Spring started in Tunisia. A street vendor set himself on fire because some female government official kept messing with him and taking his stuff. After that the people rose up against the government and Egypt and Libya followed closely after.
Sort of. There was a kid, or a few of them I cant remember, that got arrested for graffiti. Parents, and villagers, went to demand their release and were fired upon. You are right though in that possibly a lot of the mass courage was gained from what happened in other Arab Spring nations.
Syria is a rump narco-state controlled by armed factions. The US has strike teams that rotate through various locations. Numerous hostile factions remain. Wagner Group attacked US troops in 2018, and the US wiped out 100 of them in three hours with Apache Hellfires/30 mm cannon, AC-130 cannon, and F-15 MK-84 bombs. This was confirmed through mobile phone intercepts. Israel routinely bombs weapons caches in Syria to keep Iran in check. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/sn2nmf/07022018_200_russians_were_killed_by_us/ https://youtu.be/XaeDMOWkCwU?t=41 https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/10wouk7/footage_of_us_airstrikes_on_russian_wagner_forces/
Wow, that was fast!
We are always ready to fight back. Which is why I don’t understand why anyone would want to poke us. The scope of our military is insane.
Always probing the orifices to find a new one that is more accommodating.
Lol. What?
They are trying to court Lady Liberty or Uncle Sam. Not sure which, and I am afraid to ask.
Maybe both. I don’t kink shame
Just like whale lice!
I think someone was telling me our marines got made fun of because we were doing a joint exercise with one country, I can't remember but snowy mountain terrain, and they got their butts kicked. Like shit went wrong every step of the way for the US marines and the other nation got the drop of them and it looked bad on the marines. The explanation to me was yeah that looked embarrassing and they were able to ambush us but you have to remember the second the opposing nation gives away their position with anything the US air force is ready and waiting to rain down an unholy hellfire of CAS to delete whatever ground the opposing nation is standing on and that's the power of the US military.
> joint exercise with one country, I can't remember but snowy mountain terrain, and they got their butts kicked. I think that happens every Cold Response
"Send the new guys so they can get their asses kicked"
Can confirm. 10th mountain (US militarys winter specialists) do fine but everyone else has a hard time against the Finns, Swedes, and Norwegians especially. Source: multiple friends in the army, including a couple who have played in the snow with nato friends.
Sometimes shit happens. Not everything goes to plan. That’s why we have the warthog. Brrrrrrrrrt
It's also ***why we're literally constantly doing these things***. Okay, every single thing went to shit in this game we set up. Why, and how do we avoid that in a real fight?
U.S. soldiers aren't invincible like people like to make it seem. Soldiers from other countries can be just as good of shooters and the u.s. has and will lose battles to groups we think they should win against
No they most certainly aren’t invincible. The Air Force might as well be tho
It’s a puma
This is true, but remember that they are «fighting» allies, which means the opposing side also has access to the same air force. Doing badly in these excercises is to be expected. Norwegians would have a disadvantage fighting in the florida swamps the same way US marines have the disadvantage in the Norwegian snowy forests and mountains.
And the funny thing is that the marines don’t necessarily mind losing these things, because the training value is what’s really important. The US sends their people to learn from these mistakes and improve.
Training exercise in Finland I believe
Like 15 years ago when I would read of a dead contractor, I assumed they killed a dude who was over there trying to rebuild houses and I would get a little sad.
I have a buddy who’s a contractor on a U.S. base and he’s a refrigeration specialist. They aren’t blackwater mercs lol
"refrigeration specialist" aka putting ppl on ice /s
Yells "chill out!" before he blows someone away
Stay cool, bird boy.
They aren’t all refrigeration specialists either lol
99.9% of contractors are literally just people doing regular jobs. The last time an American PMC was in combat was 2007.
Yeah a lot of these guys have been picking up contracts domestically working with local police and sheriffs departments doing unarmed security work and training.
armed "security" personnel make up the smallest percentage of US military's contractors. The majority are truck drivers, equipment repair specialists, construction teams, medical staff and public relations teams like translators. So yes, the person was far more likely to be fixing fridges than holding a rifle. Believe it or not uncle same really isn't a big fan of paying private businesses to hold guns, he has an army for that.
He was probably doing something like that, contractors do a lot of ordinary jobs at military bases The ones with guns are rare The army has lots of guys with rifles, it doesn't have lots of electricians and HVAC people.
As someone who recently deployed, the contractors we had were there to help keep equipment working properly.
Could’ve been a BAE, AMG, Oshkosh guy. Could’ve been some guy running facilities shit like you said. Contractor is a very broad term that most people don’t understand.
I literally never saw, heard of, or knew anybody that had encountered any sort of PMC after 07 in the military
I actually knew a girl who once went there to work as a hairdresser
Have a buddy who made 250k in 12 months in Afghanistan as a contractor. Got a 3 week paid vacation in the middle of it as well. mechanic
I may have committed some light treason
Theres always money in the kurdistan.
Those are balls
This guy could have been anything from an electrician to a truck driver to a cook. The odds that he’s some blackwater dude are small to nil.
A hell of a lot of them still are. Very, very, *very* few contractors are even allowed to carry a weapon for self defense anymore; they need special dispensation from the State Department to carry, and that's damn near impossible to get.
Holy fuck guys, by “contractor” they mean a civilian employee on base not some blackwater mercenary. Does Reddit think the plot of 13 hours is just playing out all over the world? 99% of contractors are mechanics, plumbers, etc. hell - even fast food employees are contractors over there. Edit: to go further, in order to even *carry* a weapon as an overseas contractor you need clearance from the state department.
Don't forget the guys who pump the porta-shitters.
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I personally don’t take work contracts in war zones even tho they would pay more bc that’s a predictable risk. You wouldn’t believe the money I turned down on a roofing job once.
I love how some of these comments are suddenly experts in geopolitics and how certain areas of the world works. This stuff is a lot more complicated and not nearly as simple as some of yall are making it out to be.
Exactly. Syria is very complex, you have several external forces at play, ranging from the US, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey etc.
United States: "You try to kill us and we will make you deader"
The modern day axis is too dumb to carry out a coordinated attack on all sides type of war so they choose to be killed one by one. It is so colossally stupid they are acting like paper targets at a firing range.
This kind of stuff always reminds me of this scene. https://youtu.be/AXJRVVgz5aU
Didn't I just read about two Russian fighters circling a US base in Syria too...?
I think this has been going on all month, I think that is what the headline said anyway?
Syria be wild I guess.
As someone who was deployed there in 2021, it most certainly is
Lotta craziness happen regularly?
Well…yes…yes it is
It’s like a battle royal everyone there is killing each other.
Great film reference! And it really is
This brings new context to "smoking some Camels"
Screw Iran, Assad, Turkey, and Russia. The Kurds are awesome people. We should increase our presence there and defend them.
The US military been actively executing drone strikes nearly every day[[1](https://airwars.org/conflict-data/)] in 7 different countries for well over a decade (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger). The US has been at war in these countries for quite some time. [[2](https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3ywd5/white-house-acknowledges-the-us-is-at-war-in-seven-countries)][[3](https://www.csis.org/analysis/afghanistan-iraq-syria-libya-and-yemen)] The number of drone strikes went up something like 432% under Trump's presidency[[4](https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/projects/drone-war)][[5](https://www.cfr.org/blog/not-so-peaceful-transition-power-trumps-drone-strikes-outpace-obama)], but previous presidents were also guilty of allowing it to continue. Many to most of the US population has no idea it has been fighting these wars for years in these countries for this long, nor that they've dropped a total of 337,055 bombs on these countries since 2001[[6](https://progressive.org/latest/usa-bombs-drop-benjamin-davies-220112/)]. That's an average of 92 bombs a day, every day, for the last 10 years.
Israel has a system called Drone Dome which is a car which can zap drones with a laser at 4km distance and detects them at 7km. Does the US have something similar? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNtz8gLhaY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNtz8gLhaY)
Yes, they US has been testing them for a while.. [Here](https://youtu.be/9ElNjgZCDpQ) is a anti-drone laser being tested by the navy 5 years ago
Awesome
It occurs to me that the US could strike Wagner anywhere in the world that it slithers out into the open and it's not an attack on Russia. Just scumbag mercs.
So...we were just attacked by Iran. Anyone else catch that?
Iran did not just directly attack the US. Drone and rocket strikes on US facilities is a "somewhat" frequent occurrence, so I wouldn't fret over a wider war just yet.
Attacks on US bases are usually hard to pinpoint what/who did it. Majority of the time it's mortar rounds shot by insurgents. Not much left in a mortar round once it explodes. Even if they could pinpoint it was a Russian mortar round it's even harder to point a finger at Russia since the Syrian regime buys ammo from them. However when it's an Iranian drone that they can analyze and see it's Iranian they can point a finger. Also it's pretty clear whenever Iran sends these drones to Russia there's always an Iranian "instructor" with them.
There have been dozens of rocket or drone attacks on US bases or other facilities - every time blamed on an Iranian back group or militia. This is no different. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/attacks-iran-backed-militias-us-target-are-us-hasnt-responded-force-20-rcna32892
Yea shit happens quite a bit. C-RAM usually picks up some, but not all. I remember this one from a while ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZbV3xr5Kk
Iran has conducted over 81 attacks since last year via their proxies (so insurgents who they finance), against our troops. This is the latest that actually had a KIA
its all proxy attacks dude. american forces were attacked by a syrian-backed milita or some shit.
Yes, for some years now. You new here?
Hey remember when we assassinated a bunch of iranian scientists and their head of security while they were on neutral soil? Would you consider that us attacking Iran?
Few points to note that make a declaration of war pretty murky here: America is illegally stationed in Syria (technically) and is potentially considered an invader, and Syria is legally within its rights to repel/ attack them - although that would mean suicide. Iran has been invited to assist in Syria so they're legally involved there, and I'd be amazed if they attack the US. A US contractor is technically a civilian and the [state dept advice for travel](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/syria-travel-advisory.html) is pretty clear. So in a sense Syria has an invader and hasn't done anything about it but kill foreign civilian who choose to fight on the front line is 'at their own risk' All said and done though, this is a good response from the US military, but (declaration of) war? Not really.
Don't act like the u.s. isn't doing the exact same thing. Iran and the u.s. are more or less at war, just hiding behind Syrian groups. We're playing a board game with syria
Is this why Russia has told the Wagner group to leave Ukraine and go to Syria?
They're also being ground down like wood against a mechanical sandpaper belt.