President Trump is not expected to hear any ideas from Pentagon brass about creating so-called safe zones in Syria, even though Trump has promoted that idea as recently as this week.
Trump has reiterated his support for the idea of creating areas within Syria that would protect the civilian population from the attacks from government forces, and thereby cut off the flow of refugees into Europe or others countries.
“I’ll absolutely do safe zones in Syria for the people,” Trump said in an interview aired on ABC Wednesday night.
But Pentagon officials speaking privately say they are puzzled by what has in mind, and the options being drawn up to accelerate the effort to defeat the Islamic State do not currently include creating safe zones in Syria.
The Obama administration refused calls to establish safe areas or institute a no-fly zone in Syria, citing the risk, expense and the need for troops on the ground, as well as not wanting to take sides in the Syrian civil war.
Trump and his democratic challenger Hillary Clinton expressed support for the concept of safe zones during the president campaign, but neither provided details on how it could be accomplished.
Several officials, who spoke to the Washington Examiner on condition of anonymity so as not to be seen opposing the president’s policy goals, said if the idea was ever a good one, it’s time has now likely passed.
The officials point to several factors on the ground that have changed in the past years including the defeat of rebels in Aleppo, the presence of Turkish troops in northern Syria, and the effective sealing of the Turkish and Jordanian borders ending the outpouring of refugees.
“What are we going to do, put air cover over that?” asked one military officer. “The Turks are already doing that. The Russians are there, so are we. What are we going to accomplish?”
The history of safe zones is fraught with perils.
While the U.S. successfully enforced no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq for more than 20 years after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, that did not stop Saddam Hussein from murdering his own people including marsh Arabs in the south and Kurds in the north.
The most ignominious example of failed safe zone came in Bosnia in 1995, when a U.N. established “safe haven” in Srebrenica was overrun by Serbian forces, and more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered.
