Paul McLeary, Foreign Policy: Seven Days, a Gun, and a Prayer: The Pentagon’s Plan to Pacify Raqqa
Thousands of new security personnel are being trained by U.S. special operations forces to keep the peace in Raqqa after the Islamic State, but is a week of training enough?
As the Islamic State crumbles, American special operations forces and their Arab and Kurdish allies have been working quietly to establish a force of about 3,500 militiamen to help secure Raqqa, Syria, according to U.S. military and State Department officials.
In April, a 100-member Raqqa Civilian Council was formed in the city of Ain Issa just north of Raqqa, and U.S. troops have been training, equipping, and paying a growing security force that will be given responsibility for keeping the peace once the Islamic State is defeated. The current plan, outlined for Foreign Policy by several government officials, calls for the security forces to go through a weeklong training program that includes human rights instruction, crowd control techniques, and guidelines in setting up checkpoints.
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WNU Editor: This is doomed to fail. The Syrian government under Assad will eventually want to take over .... and then there is Iran and Hezbollah who have their own agenda on what they want to do in eastern Syria. Will U.S. forces remain in this part of Syria to give assurances to their Syrian-Arab and Kurdish allies that they will not be forgotten .... I doubt it. The sectarian differences that have been fuelling the Syrian civil war will remain .... thereby guaranteeing that this conflict will continue albeit under a different banner and name.
Update: Raqqa is not the only city that is going to be faced with problems after liberation .... Liberty doesn’t mean life: Report shows freed cities in Iraq and Syria face major hurdles (Military Times).
