America's War in Syria: Fighting with Kurdish Anti-ISIS Forces

A unique assessment of American military involvement in Syria, written by three very different authors who between them participated in all large Kurdish operations between late 2014 and mid-2016, experiencing first-hand the impact America had on the battlefield.

With America’s War on Terror and the subsequent democracy experiments in Afghanistan and Iraq having turned into geopolitical disasters, the US military campaign in alliance with the Kurdish forces in Syria remains a rare success story. Considering the overwhelming military victory, the functioning Kurdish civilian governing structures that followed the fighting, the extremely light military footprint and the strong link to Kurdish partners, many political analysts, military experts and politicians in Washington, DC, judge the intervention against ISIS in Syria as the nation’s most successful campaign since World War II. However, since neither these experts nor many journalists were on the ground during the fighting, they struggle to explain exactly how this particular operation turned into a just war.

The authors, however, were there. Between the three of them, they fought for over two years with the Kurdish forces. They participated in all the large Kurdish operations against the Islamic State between late 2014 and mid-2016. They endured muddy archaic trench warfare, witnessed the first waves of decisive US and British airstrikes against ISIS, and experienced the impact America had on the battlefield.

Later, when American, British and French Special Forces were deployed at the front lines, the authors worked closely with those teams when they evacuated hundreds of wounded from the battlefield together.

Based on the authors' unique insights, this book analyses America’s war in Syria and structures the intervention into different phases including the secretive build up and the ultimate destruction of the ISIS Caliphate.

Table of Contents

Part I: From Symbolic Airstrikes to First Coalitions
Chapter 1: The Fall of Mosul
Chapter 2: Shingal
Chapter 3: Securing the Earth Berm I
Chapter 4: Securing the Earth Berm II
Chapter 5: The First Wave of Aggressive Airstrikes
Chapter 6: The First Major Offensive Against Daesh
Chapter 7: Occupying Arab Lands
Chapter 8: Daesh’s Counter Offense

Part II: The New Syrian Democratic Forces Go to War
Chapter 9: A New Alliance Is Formed
Chapter 10: Operation Wrath of Khabur
Chapter 11: Between Operations
Chapter 12: Crossing the Euphrates
Chapter 13: The Meat Grinder
Chapter 14: Rolling with the Operators

Part III: Defeating the Caliphate: A Kurdish-American Success Story
Chapter 15: Rojava Becomes Formal
Chapter 16: Operation Wrath of Euphrates
Chapter 17: Al-Jazeera Storm
Chapter 18: The American Exit Strategy

Part IV: Madness
Chapter 19: America Has Blood on Its Hands
Chapter 20: Who Are We?