In a report entitled “Rejecting Retreat,” the Chicago Council on Global Affairs published the results of a poll showing 56 percent of Americans are in favor of maintaining or expanding the US military presence in the Muslim-majority country. The US military is in northern Syria as part of the international coalition to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS).
Among the 2,059 people polled, only 13 percent of the respondents were for the notion of increasing the number of US troops, which currently number at around 2,000 in Syria. Moreover, 43 percent favored maintaining the current presence, while 25 percent wanted to see a reduction in the number of US personnel in northern Syria.
Americans support military interventions abroad if they feel the issue threatens the US or its allies, according to one expert at the Chicago Council.
“Americans generally will support the use of force, using US troops, if they consider the issue a direct threat to themselves or allies” Dina Smeltz, a senior fellow on public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council, told Rudaw. “For example, Americans tend to support using US troops to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria.”
The public view on keeping US troops Syria is in line with the opinion of many Syria experts who argue a premature US withdrawal from the country could lead to the resurgence of ISIS and a loss of hard-won territorial gains.
“If the United States withdraws and Turkey establishes a safe-zone, which then leads to Turkish-Kurdish fighting in northern Syria, then the chances that ISIS could come back are high,” Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, told Rudaw.
The poll comes at a time of heightened tensions between the US and its NATO ally, Turkey, over establishing a safe zone in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has renewed threats to invade of northeastern Syria should the US fail to meet Turkish demands vis-à-vis the safe zone by the month’s end.
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northeast Syria an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that Turkey has fought for decades. The Kurdish YPG leads the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance against ISIS, and receives considerable support from Washington. Turkey wants a safe zone in border areas the SDF controls.
US public opinion is almost equally split on whether the US relationship with Turkey helps strengthen or weaken US national security, with 48 percent of respondents saying yes and 46 percent saying no.
Amy Austin Holmes is a researcher at the Wilson Center who has visited the predominantly Kurdish north of Syria known by Kurds as Rojava. She says a safe zone such as the one demanded by Turkey is not a priority for the Syrians living in the area.
“I think the US has spent a lot of time and energy negotiating this safe zone with Ankara because Turkey is a NATO ally and we do take their concerns seriously, however, there are many other urgent things we have to also be doing in Syria that also demand our time and attention,” she told Rudaw.
“We need to be demining Raqqa, for example, and Deir ez-Zor. We need to be ensuring that the schools are open. That children go to school now that the caliphate is defeated.”
