Headlines:
- US to Create Syrian Border Force
- America’s New Nuclear Strategy
- Very Little has Changed in Tunisia
US to Create Syrian Border Force
A US Army spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon confirmed January 15th of the creation of a new 30,000 man border force in northern Syria, along the border between Syria and Turkey.
The force is expected to be predominantly Kurdish. The inaugural class of border fighters, were already being trained, some 230 members. Fundamentally the whole scheme boils down to training and arming a heavily Kurdish force, guarding what is ultimately Kurdish YPG territory. Turkey is furious, saying the entire enterprise is unacceptable. Despite siding with the US in Syria and using their arming of rebel groups to gain influence over them and derail real change, the US clearly has an agenda much wider then Turkey’s narrow aims. A lesson Turkey will do well to keep in mind.
America’s New Nuclear Strategy
After Trump aggressively pushed against both China and Russia in his National Security strategy, new details have emerged of the Pentagon’s draft proposal on changes to American nuclear policy. This policy would see a focus on acquiring new types of nuclear weapons, with an eye toward more usable ones for limited nuclear wars. This is something some in the US military brass have been pushing for years, with an eye toward the acquisition of low yield nuclear weapons that officials could readily use in situations where they would currently be unthinkable. This is now said to include not just the acquisition of these new nuclear arms for more limited and frequent nuclear wars, but also revisions of nuclear policy that would dramatically relax restrictions on such strikes.
Very Little has Changed in Tunisia
Most Tunisians marked the 14 of January, the anniversary’ of the Arab Spring with continued protests as the country economy spirals downwards. The North African country is seen as having had a relatively smooth transition since the 14 January, 2011 toppling of President Zine El Abidin Ben Al after 23 years in power. But seven years later, anger has risen over new austerity measures after a year of rising prices, with protesters again chanting the 2011 slogans. Protesters have gone back to the streets as their demands for change have not materialised. Like much of the region what took place 7 years ago was just the tremor, the earthquake is yet to come.