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  • What can a remote outpost tell us

  • about how the U.S. got pulled so deep into Syria’s war?

  • The answer might be easiest to understand

  • if we start out small.

  • In March of 2016 — a series of victories in a desolate patch

  • of the Syrian desert.

  • A band of rebels captures a border crossing.

  • And then they move and capture a rectangular compound

  • that’s been in the hands of the Islamic State.

  • Now, like a lot of forces in Syria, big and small,

  • these guys want to be known.

  • They’d sent out promotional videos.

  • They’d made the TV news.

  • They’d even made a YouTube page,

  • and asked visitors to subscribe, to follow along

  • while they go fight ISIS.

  • But all these videos, they tell us something else.

  • American weapon.

  • American weapon.

  • American weapon.

  • And all this propaganda?

  • Behind the scenes are coalition advisers.

  • Theyre coaching the rebels with how to introduce

  • themselves to the world.

  • Theyre backing the rebels because, at the time,

  • this was part of America’s big plan for defeating

  • the Islamic State in Syria: Train and equip local rebels

  • to do the fighting.

  • We will advise, and we will assist.”

  • These rebels are called the New Syrian Army.

  • And that compound they captured?

  • That rectangle in the desert?

  • It turned into a small military base called Al-Tanf.

  • That’s far away from all other

  • U.S. and coalition bases in Syria.

  • In the years to come, the base will be

  • attacked by ISIS,

  • threatened by Iranian proxies

  • and become the subject of Russian conspiracy theories.

  • This base will illustrate how

  • it can be easy to get involved in a war

  • This is a transnational long-term threat.”

  • but much harder to get out of one.

  • Senator, that would have to be provided

  • in a different setting.”

  • Wait a minute.”

  • Why can’t you — “

  • Wait.

  • Wait a minute.”

  • How the mission can change in unexpected ways.

  • But the original mission, of course,

  • was to defeat the Islamic State.

  • The choice of Al-Tanf as a base was a good one.

  • Right off the bat, the rebels build a couple walls.

  • And this gives them control of a major road.

  • That lets them disrupt the Islamic State’s ability

  • to move between Syria and Iraq,

  • and to stop them from entering Jordan, which is

  • an important American ally.

  • But the rebelsmain objective is

  • to use Al-Tanf as a staging ground

  • to seize the region back from ISIS.

  • In their first year, the rebels have some failures

  • and they have some successes.

  • American and coalition soldiers

  • are there with them doing the training.

  • The rebels managed to recapture

  • a good amount of land, along with other rebel groups

  • in the area.

  • That’s seen in blue.

  • But here’s where Al-Tanf is forced

  • to take on an entirely new, entirely unexpected role,

  • an example of America’s expanding mission in Syria

  • Iran.

  • See, when the American-backed rebels capture land from ISIS

  • remember, that was their original mission

  • theyre also capturing land that

  • President Bashar al-Assad wants back, after losing it

  • earlier in the civil war

  • that began in 2011.

  • So the regime’s coming after them, like it or not.

  • Iran’s been supporting the regime,

  • and has its own reasons for wanting

  • control of this rebel area.

  • See this road that Al-Tanf’s on?

  • It leads all the way to Iran.

  • Iran wants to be the dominant player in the region.

  • Do you think it wants a little U.S. base

  • blocking a valuable supply route that

  • carries Iranian influence and materiel all the way

  • to the Mediterranean?

  • No.

  • So in the spring of 2017, the Syrian army

  • and Iranian-backed militias decide to take

  • the region back with an offensive.

  • Their objective is to reach

  • the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.

  • In the way is Al-Tanf.

  • And by this time, the U.S. has established

  • a protective circle around the base that’s

  • called a deconfliction zone.

  • Basically, it means cross into that circle uninvited

  • and you risk an American attack.

  • But the pro-regime forces advance anyway.

  • The Americans strike, saying it’s in self-defense.

  • [explosion]

  • These videos claim to show the strikes on pro-regime forces.

  • [Arabic shouting, in reaction to blast]

  • Then the Americans drop leaflets warning the oncoming

  • forces to stay away from the deconfliction zone.

  • But they keep coming.

  • [explosion]

  • And the U.S. keeps striking.

  • And here’s where our story comes

  • to a pivotal moment that shows just how messy

  • it can be when you get involved in a civil war.

  • The U.S. told the world that it was in Syria

  • to fight the Islamic State.

  • Tonight, on my orders, America’s armed forces

  • began strikes against ISIL targets in Syria.”

  • And now, it’s attacking Syrians and Iranian proxies.

  • It was necessitated by offensive movement

  • I don’t know there were Iranians on the ground

  • but by Iranian-directed forces.”

  • So now we get more American hardware coming in.

  • Meanwhile, the base that looked like this

  • when the rebels took over has now grown to look like this.

  • But if Iran has become a factor

  • in the U.S. mission in Syria,

  • here’s an example of how the government doesn’t

  • want to publicly admit that this

  • has expanded the mission.

  • So let’s head to Washington for a second.

  • Don’t click away.

  • I know congressional hearings aren’t always a

  • thrill a minute, but this one

  • “— stand.”

  • gets interesting.

  • So let meso what is the — “

  • A senator asks a high-ranking State Department official

  • what U.S. troops will do in Syria once ISIS is defeated

  • “ — non-ISIS priorities.”

  • but question seems to strike a nerve.

  • Senator, that would have to be provided

  • in a different setting.”

  • He doesn’t want to say that Iran’s part

  • of the Syrian strategy now.

  • Um.”

  • Why not?”

  • Wait a minute.”

  • Why can’t you — “

  • Wait.

  • Wait a minute.

  • That won’t pass muster.”

  • So he relents, just a bit.

  • We are deeply concerned with the activities of Iran,

  • with the ability of Iran to enhance those activities

  • through a greater ability to move materiel into Syria.

  • And I would rather leave the discussion at that point.”

  • The Iranian threat came just up the road from Al-Tanf.

  • But America’s mission in Syria is also

  • growing beyond ISIS because of what

  • lies just 12 miles to the south

  • Trapped in a no man’s land,

  • but still the numbers grow.”

  • the lives of 50,000 refugees.

  • 50,000.

  • They live in a camp called Rukban.

  • Many of them have fled the Syrian regime

  • and the Islamic State.

  • The camp is so close to Al-Tanf

  • that it’s protected by the base’s deconfliction zone.

  • And were going to be present at Al-Tanf to make sure ISIS

  • cannot return and also to manage this

  • difficult humanitarian situation.”

  • Hear that?

  • Yet another reason to stay in Syriaprotect the refugees.

  • But these refugees serve another purpose

  • [Russian speech]

  • as props for Russian misinformation.

  • See, Russia’s got bases in Syria, too.

  • It wants to secure its own influence in the region.

  • But the American presence in Syria, including at Al-Tanf,

  • is getting in the way.

  • So the Russians try to make the Americans and rebels

  • at Al-Tanf look so bad that theyll

  • be forced to give it up.

  • [Russian speech]

  • They often claim that the Americans and rebels

  • at Al-Tanf block aid shipments to the Rukban refugees,

  • creating a humanitarian crisis.

  • But the internet is also full of conspiracy theories

  • about the base.

  • Some seem to have been influenced

  • by Russia’s statements.

  • Take Al-Tanf’s Wikipedia page.

  • The original entry smears the Al-Tanf rebels

  • by calling them armed gangs and militants that

  • are training terrorists, who the U.S. helps transport.

  • The user who wrote all this has uploaded photos elsewhere

  • that show a Russia connection.

  • How?

  • Well, one, they show a city Russian advisers were

  • in at the time.

  • Two, the file names are all in Russian.

  • And, three, one is taken from the inside

  • of a Russian military vehicle, like the one

  • seen here elsewhere in Syria.

  • Al-Tanf is just one example of how

  • Russia’s presence in Syria has contributed

  • to yet another reason the U.S. mission has expanded

  • preventing unchecked Russian influence.

  • After more recent Russian threats,

  • the U.S. sends Marines to Al-Tanf as a show of force.

  • [gunfire]

  • The base that looked like this after those airstrikes

  • against pro-regime forces, has grown even bigger.

  • And soon after, a top general arrives,

  • stressing America’s support for the base.

  • Construction on a new expansion

  • begins three weeks later.

  • “I don’t want to be in Syria forever.

  • It’s sand.

  • And it’s death.”

  • President Trump reverses course,

  • and orders a troop pullout from Syria.

  • But there’s an ongoing debate in the government

  • about whether to make Al-Tanf the exception, to keep troops

  • there even after all other U.S. troops in the country

  • have left.

  • Will the base’s story end with the rebels and refugees left

  • to fend for themselves, or will the U.S. decide to

  • stay put to counter its rivals and small pockets of ISIS

  • in a mission that has no end in sight?

  • Whatever happens, remember: This is all

  • taking place in just one small, remote corner of Syria,

  • a country that’s in conflict from end to end.

  • So 23 seconds into this video, I mentioned

  • a border crossing, the one the rebels

  • use to cross into Syria.

  • Turns out, the Syrian civil war

  • isn’t the only time conflict touched this crossing.

  • I found these images from the Iraq war from 2007.

  • These are refugees flooding the Al-Tanf crossing,

  • trying to get out of Iraq.

  • Back then, Syria was far safer.

What can a remote outpost tell us

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伊朗、ISIS和一個軍事基地。為什麼美國要離開敘利亞並不容易|紐約時報新聞網 (Iran, ISIS and a Military Base: Why Leaving Syria Won’t Be Easy for the U.S. | NYT News)

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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