Bonnie Kristian , Fellow, Defense Priorities
On 7/1/22 at 8:00 AM EDT
Public attention to U.S.-Russia relations since February has focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and understandably so. The United States’ gradually expanding support for Ukraine’s defense has enabled the Eastern European nation to repel Russian aggression far better and longer than most anticipated when the war began, but it has also brought the U.S. and Russia worryingly close to conflict. That’s a prospect which has even hawks flying scared, because Washington and Moscow’s nuclear arsenals, if deployed, are enough to destroy the world many times over.
But there’s another risk of U.S.-Russia conflict to which we should pay attention: Both countries continue to have a military presence in Syria. Russian forces are primarily supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s brutal civil war, as well as fighting remnants of the Islamic State. American troops are training enemies of ISIS, limiting the Assad regime’s oil access, and conducting strikes against groups including ISIS and “targets linked to Al Qaeda, the Syrian government, and Iran-backed militias.”
U.S. and Russian soldiers in Syria aren’t in open conflict—in fact, the two militaries maintain a “deconfliction” line of communications—but they are operating in tight quarters, and often, on opposing sides. Close calls are too common, and particularly with rising hostility in Europe, a misstep or miscommunication could plunge us into unwanted and unnecessary war. That’s a risk we could eliminate with a safer and more prudent policy for U.S. security: complete military withdrawal from Syria.
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