Accidental Allies

The U.S.-led effort to fight the Islamic State in northeastern Syria since 2014 has been as controversial and poorly understood as it has been significant. Advocates of fighting "by, with and through" the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) view the campaign as a near-ideal case study of a cost-effective U.S. military intervention that should be duplicated in the future. Critics of the campaign say that the U.S. allied itself with a terrorist group and endangered its ties with Turkey, a long-stranding NATO partner; losing sight of strategic priorities in order to win tactical victories at low cost.
This book combines general research with 50 interviews gathered in Syria with Kurdish, Arab and Christian SDF officers, and 50 interviews with U.S. and French officials and military officers with on-the-ground involvement in the war. It provides an unprecedented window into how the war was really prosecuted, in the eyes of the participants at all levels, uniquely looking not only at how U.S. soldiers view their partner forces, but how the local partners view them in return. This is a unique and essential insight into US strategy in Syria and beyond.

Michael Knights is the Jill and Jay Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and the Gulf Arab states. Dr. Knights has traveled widely in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and the Gulf states, and regularly briefs U.S. government policymakers, congressional committees, and U.S. military officers on regional security affairs. He has embedded in numerous partner force operations with local military and security agencies on the ground in Iraq, the Gulf states, and Yemen.
Wladimir van Wilgenburg is a political analyst, journalist and coauthor (with Harriet Allsopp) of The Kurds of Northern Syria. He currently writes for Kurdistan 24 and has also written reports and analysis for the Kurdish daily Rudaw, Al-Monitor, Middle East Eye, Daily Beast, Washington Post, a variety of think tank publications such as The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, The Jamestown Foundation, Carnegie Endowment, the Atlantic Council, and others.

PREFACE
GLOSSARY
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
1.CHRONOLOGY OF THE CONFLICT IN NORTHEASTERN SYRIA, 20111-2020
2.BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE SDF
3.SUPPORTING FROM AFAR: KOBANI TO AL-HAWL
4.ON THE GROUND: SHADADI TO MANBIJ
5.SCALING UP: THE RAQQA CAMPAIGN
6.OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE: THE DEIR AL-ZOUR CAMPAIGN
7.STABILIZATION "BY, WITH AND THROUGH" THE SDF
8.ASSESSING AMERICA'S "BY, WITH AND THROUGH" CAMPAIGN IN NORTHEAST SYRIA
ANNEX 1: ANNOTATED ROSTER OF BATTLES AND CAMPAIGNS IN NORTHEAST SYRIA, 2014-2020
ANNEX 2: YPG/SDF CLAIMED COMBAT LOSSES IN 2013-2019
Index