STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES 32 Five Conundrums: The United States and the Conflict in Syria

That said, the collective campaign to destroy IS’s territorial control in Iraq and Syria has been relatively straightforward given both the unanimous international political consensus, even among adversaries, on the need to defeat the group, and the available means to accomplish the task.2 ■■ The “meta-problem” is the original and central issue in Syria, and the one that hangs over and weaves its. [...] personnel and the security of some of our closest allies.3 These three dimensions help explain the complexity of the conflict and hint at the difficulty of reaching a neat and satisfying resolution.4 But as the United States and other parties sought to navigate toward a resolution early on in the conflict, the complexity grew further, and a set of conundrums emerged that wend across and wind throu. [...] Conundrum 2: The Fatal Limitations of the Syrian Opposition The second conundrum has to do with the Syrian opposition, on which the United States and other countries long staked hopes for a political resolution of the conflict and a decent future for the Syrian people. [...] and the West’s misunderstanding of the opposition, particularly the seriousness of its second fatal flaw: the fact that extremist armed actors were, 6 Five Conundrums: The United States and the Conflict in Syria from early on, the dominant force on the ground and the principal factor in opposition military successes.21 The Syrian opposition—as it has come to be constituted since the beginning of 2. [...] The People’s Protection Units (YPG), however, were the backbone of the force, and the battle of Kobani marked the effective beginning of their partnership with the U.