The Syrian war has wrought death and destruction over the last four and a half years. More than 250,000 people have died and 12 million have been displaced. As the war seems set to carry on, especially with Russia entering the fray, discussions have returned to a policy previously discussed but not enacted: the no-fly zone (NFZ).
A number of Republican Presidential candidates have advocated for the NFZ, including Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, and Chris Christie.
The humanitarian argument for the NFZ makes it look like the best available prospect for helping Syrians suffering from bombings that kill 200 civilians a week. What has stopped Obama it seems is his unwillingness to start a war with Russia over the situation in Syria. Some of the more hawkish proponents of a NFZ have said they would take a more direct approach.
“Well, the first thing you do is you set up a no-fly zone in Syria, and you call Putin, and you say to him, ‘Listen, we’re enforcing a no-fly zone, and that means we’re enforcing it against everyone, and that includes you. So, don’t test me’,” Chris Christie told Fox News. He added that he would shoot down Russian jets if necessary.
When Carly Fiorina was asked on Hannity whether she would use force against Russia for violating a NFZ, she said “Well, hopefully not. Hopefully, if we are signaling clearly to the Russians our intention, it will not come to that. But if it does come to that, I think we must be prepared.”
Secretary of State John Kerry recently asked the National Security Council and State Department staff to look into the prospect of a NFZ in Syria. A NFZ would be a sector of Syrian territory where combating military aircraft would not be allowed to enter. Ground fighting would not be halted under a NFZ, but supporters argue that it would halt the devastating barrel-bombing the Assad regime is using on civilian targets. It could also prevent Syrians residing in the NFZ from fleeing to neighboring countries or Europe as refugees.
The idea of a NFZ has been bandied about in the past by Turkey, France, and the Syrian opposition. Turkey in particular wanted to establish it between Mare and Jerablus in northern Syria but it never materialized. The southern region bordering Jordan has also been suggested in the past.
President Obama has thus far rejected the proposal of a NFZ because he feels it would be impossible to guarantee the area remained free of warplanes without potentially upping tensions with Russia.
“When I hear people offering up half-baked ideas as if they are solutions, or trying to downplay the challenges involved in this situation — what I’d like to see people ask is, specifically, precisely, what exactly would you do, and how would you fund it, and how would you sustain it,” Obama said at a press conference. “And typically, what you get is a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.”
But other voices have come out in favor of a NFZ as few other options seem plausible to have an effect on the crisis.
President Obama has thus far rejected the proposal of a NFZ
“I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to try to provide some way to take stock of what’s happening, to try to stem the flow of refugees,” Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in an interview with a Boston television station.
Fellow Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders however has come out against a NFZ. “I oppose, at this point, a unilateral American no-fly zone in Syria which could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending U.S. entanglement in that region,” he said in a statement.
“We do not want to make a very complex situation in Syria even worse. I support President Obama’s effort to combat the Islamic State in Syria while at the same time supporting those in Syria trying to overthrow the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Assad.”