Senior spokesperson of the US State Department Heather Nauert said on August 18 that America doesn’t intend to extend its stay in Syria after the Islamic State (IS) is defeated.
During a regular briefing in Washington, she also said: “That is our intent, to defeat the ISIS and not do anything more than that. Syria must be governed by its own people and not by the US or other forces.”
Nauert issued the statement while commenting on the view expressed by senior Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) official Talal Silo. Giving an interview to Reuters, Silo said that the American armed forces would remain in northern Syria long after the jihadists are defeated, predicting enduring ties with the Kurdish-dominated region. According to the SDF official, Washington has a strategic interest to stay in the West Asian country for another several decades even after the defeat of terrorism.

Actually, such a statement by the US officials sounds a little bit strange and slightly hypocritical. Reuters correspondents previously found out that seven American military bases were deployed on the territory of Syrian Kurdistan, which is located near the Syrian-Turkish border. However, the exact location of the bases is not revealed by the military command of the coalition due to security purposes.
Meanwhile, Reuters journalists witnessed how American military helicopters (Blackhawk and Apache) took off from the territory of a concrete plant to the south-eastern part of the city of Kobani, where the largest American airbase in Syria is (reportedly) located. In April, spokesperson of Central Command Colonel John Thomas confirmed that this particular base was helping the US and other anti-IS forces launch attacks in Raqqa.

After setting up the military bases in the northern part of Syria, Washington will unlikely hand over them to the Kurdish militia and to the Syrian authorities. Most likely, even after theoretical victory over the IS, the US will reserve these areas for ‘fighting terrorism’ in future.
Reserving vast territories in Syria will allow Washington to create instability in the region. America will also support the Kurds in an attempt to dissect Syria, as it wants to create several independent quasi-states on the Syrian territory.
The participation of Americans in military campaigns (in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan) shows that if Washington gets involved in a conflict, then it rarely leaves the area. But this pathos pattern can be broken in new geopolitical conditions.

Boundless Ocean of Politics received this article from Sophie Mangal, Co-Editor, Inside Syria Media Centre.

Sophie Mangal

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Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das