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NicholasAHeras's profile
Nicholas A Heras
Nicholas A Heras
Nicholas A Heras
@NicholasAHeras

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Nicholas A Heras

@NicholasAHeras

Middle East Security Fellow @Cnasdc and Senior Analyst @JamestownTweets RT does not necessarily equal endorsement.

Joined June 2015

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    Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

    1/There's this idea going around that the #SDF was chosen as the primary vehicle to fight #ISIS in #Syria without careful consideration. And that other alternatives to confront and defeat ISIS in Syria were not pursued. They were, and none proved better than the SDF in the field.

    7:54 PM - 15 Jun 2019
    • 25 Retweets
    • 46 Likes
    • DelSur☀️ Cowboy John nulas Seîd Çîçek William Gourlay DerSchmiedvonKochel Darav Ibrahim Ahmad Al-Rashid George Cairns
    5 replies 25 retweets 46 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        2/In the 2014-2016 time period, there were four different projects supported by the U.S.-led Coalition to confront #ISIS in #Syria. (1) Burkan Al Furat/SDF (2) Train and Equip (3) Hawar Kilis Operations Room (4) New Syrian Army and tribal revolts to create an "inkspot"

        2 replies 2 retweets 10 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        3/Of these four (really five) counter-#ISIS vehicles, only the #SDF route worked. All of these were supposed to work in tandem but that didn't happen in real life. There was no favoritism shown the #YPG-led Burkan Al Furat (later SDF) vehicle. The U.S. tried hard to avoid that.

        1 reply 3 retweets 11 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        4/#SDF was born because Burkan Al Furat model actually worked. The #YPG was just better at recruiting other groups (especially E. #Syrian Arabs) to fight #ISIS. They weren't perfect at it. But good enough. In counterinsurgency, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

        3 replies 3 retweets 11 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        5/That's USA ODA philosophy 101: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The Train and Equip program went for perfect. It failed. The New #Syrian Army seemed perfect and to have the capability to create a tribal revolt in the lower MERV, to conquer and hold it. It failed.

        1 reply 3 retweets 8 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        6/The Hawar Kilis Operations Room had some success. And formed the backbone of Euphrates Shield. But its groups couldn't prevent Ahrar Al Sharqiya from threatening U.S. soldiers trying to assess how to partner up to fight #ISIS. AKA, force protection issue. A pretty big failure.

        1 reply 3 retweets 6 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        7/The fact of the matter is the #SDF was neither the favored vehicle nor a foregone conclusion to be #CJTFOIR's premiere #Syrian partner to seize #ISIS areas in N/E #Syria, and to hold them. It earned that partnership by winning the trust of CJTFOIR forces. On the battlefield.

        1 reply 4 retweets 11 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Nicholas A Heras‏ @NicholasAHeras 7h7 hours ago

        8/But don't just take my word for it. Listen to what General Thomas of SOCOM had to say about the effectiveness of the #SDF:https://youtu.be/wCqCnLjSx7M 

        1 reply 5 retweets 13 likes
        Show this thread
      9. End of conversation
      1. L K‏ @ALasyerli 4h4 hours ago
        Replying to @NicholasAHeras

        The owners of these ideas know very well, but keep telling the same ‘would have been stories’ over And over again. Hopefully the people living in these areas, will not forget that the ones who delivered them out to Isis were the same kind of people. SDF fought, died and liberated

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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      1. New conversation
      2. Rebecca Riley  ☀️ 🌎 🌲 🦋 🌈 ✡️‏ @emprestheodora 2h2 hours ago
        Replying to @NicholasAHeras

        All the other groups were made up of jiahdists with links to Al Qaeda and were no better than ISIS. SDF is the only group that believes in liberal ideals like women's rights. Look at the FSA it's a regressive backwards group of Islamists who treat women like the Taliban do.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Rebecca Riley  ☀️ 🌎 🌲 🦋 🌈 ✡️‏ @emprestheodora 2h2 hours ago
        Replying to @emprestheodora @NicholasAHeras

        That's how we ended up with ISIS in the first place, analysts thought it was a great idea to back radical jihadis fighting Assad, then it turned into a nightmare and we finally realized backing jihadis was a bad idea. Kurds were only group we could work with against the jihadis.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. Rebecca Riley  ☀️ 🌎 🌲 🦋 🌈 ✡️‏ @emprestheodora 1h1 hour ago
        Replying to @emprestheodora @NicholasAHeras

        Now it is those same analysts saying, oh you know what, we should have worked more with the jihadists, we should have backed the Al Qaeda jihadists against the ISIS jihadists. They're hopeless, they don't understand why backing the jihadist rebels was never a working strategy.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. Rebecca Riley  ☀️ 🌎 🌲 🦋 🌈 ✡️‏ @emprestheodora 1h1 hour ago
        Replying to @emprestheodora @NicholasAHeras

        All the groups available other than the SDF, were straight up Al Qaeda.https://www.nationofchange.org/2017/05/14/myth-moderate-rebels-syria/ …

        0 replies 1 retweet 0 likes
      6. End of conversation
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      1. New conversation
      2. Türk‏ @Trk76789045 7h7 hours ago
        Replying to @NicholasAHeras

        sdf is terorist group. Amrica supporting terrorizm. Syria will not allow Turkey in a new formation. A new puppet state is not acceptable in our border.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. Hoseli‏ @hoshiareli 24m24 minutes ago
        Replying to @Trk76789045

        pic.twitter.com/QxbBlreKeU

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. End of conversation

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