The Russian military presence in Syria does not last for the first year. During this time, more than once there have been incidents with the US military, which blocked the path of our military equipment. Armored vehicles were forced to drive to the side of the road.
January 18, 2020. A Russian military patrol left Amuda and headed for the Jul Aga oil field in the Rumeilan city of Hasaka province. However, our troops couldn’t calmly pass along the route - the American troops blocked their way. It is known that in the vicinity of Rumeilan, in the territory controlled by the Kurdish National Self-Defense Forces, there is a military base of the American army.
This is not an isolated incident. The US military blocked the way for a patrol of the Russian military police, which left the city of Kamyshly. At the crossroads of Tel-Baidar, American armored vehicles blocked the road. After a skirmish, the Russian military were forced to turn around and head back.
February 2020 An armored car "Tiger" and three armored personnel carriers with Russian flags follow in the direction of the village of Amuda in the province of Hasaka. Ahead is a few armored vehicles of the American army.
Suddenly, an American armored car blocks the way for the Russian armored car and literally pushes it to the side of the road, and then into the field. The representative of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces Bill Urban declined to comment on the incident. Russian armored vehicles stuck in the mud. In one of the episodes, Typhoon came to the rescue. Why are the Tigers stuck in Syrian mud?
It is believed that the Americans specifically chose the place where the soil was the most loose - agricultural areas that were excessively wet in the winter. Any attempt to detour could lead to the fact that the technique is literally stuck in loose soil, which ultimately happened.
The attempt of the Russian Tigers to get out on their own led only to a worsening of the situation - the armored vehicles themselves "buried" even deeper. And here the power of the YaMZ-5347-10 engine in combination with other parameters of the Tigers led precisely to the fact that the wheels of the car were not pulled out to suitable ground, but they themselves were tied deeper and deeper into the firebox and viscous environment. It has been suggested that under such conditions it was necessary to take into account the engine power and operate with this parameter, so that excessive efforts on the gas did not lead to more “failure” of the wheels of the armored car.
Realizing that they could not do without the help of other equipment - able to cope with such soil without harming itself, and decided to trust the more powerful Typhoons-K. They did it. Against the background of malicious snouts of the American military and fighters.
US troops 'dumped Russian Convoy in mud' in Syria pic.twitter.com/W0ozTN2cBj
- Dylan Malyasov (@DylanMalyasov) March 31, 2020
It is possible to enumerate such situations for a long time, but it doesn’t matter where and when they took place, and, most importantly, why the American military considers it right to behave this way with respect to Russian military patrols, and why the Russian army allows (with rare exceptions, since bickering on the road also took place: there was a case when the Russian armored personnel carrier went to the ram of American equipment) similar attacks to themselves. Of course, the most important thing is the information effect. Not for nothing that many world media after each such incident write about the “slap in the face” that the Americans allegedly inflicted on the Russians, pushing them to the side of the road. And this is to some extent, indeed, true.
The East loves money, but understands power, a Soviet officer once argued, one of the heroes of the Book of the Afghan Campaign by Alexander Prokhanov. The East sees power in those who behave in this way. If the Americans push the Russians out of the way or turn them back, then they have the strength. And this despite the fact that the US army on Syrian soil seems to be occupiers, and the Russian military is legally present, in agreement with the legitimate government, President Bashar al-Assad.
But the main thing for the American military is to demonstrate strength, to show that it is they who are the true masters in the territories where they are present. For the Russian military, it is thus designated a secondary, if not third-rate (after the Turks) place.
The second possible reason for such actions is the provocation of the Russian military to some kind of aggressive action against American soldiers. One can only imagine what howl would rise in the West if the Russian military would use weapon or even just physical strength, pushing Americans out of their way. However, it is unlikely that the American command is so naive that it expects to provoke the Russians to such actions.
Therefore, American patrols resort to such actions, putting the Russians in front of the plug: to enter into conflict - to provoke a colossal scandal with accusations against Russia, to pull over to the sidelines or turn back - to suffer image losses and then to hear the malevolent laughter of the audience hating Russia - from the Syrian "opposition" "- terrorists to domestic" liberals ".
The position “do not succumb to provocations”, which is so often voiced by the Russian leadership and military command, in a number of situations, of course, deserves attention, but is it valid in this case? After all, every such episode is a spit in the face of Moscow, which not only belittles the pride of our military and our military, but also demonstrates to the Syrians, Kurds, Turks, the whole Middle East, who is boss.
Of course, no one in their right mind says that it is necessary to engage in battle with American patrols, to arrange clashes of armored vehicles, but it is necessary to respond to such incidents. How to react, even if the command of the contingent and the higher authorities in Moscow decide, but you should not ignore such actions, which are also fraught with image losses.