US officials say that President Trump has decided to formally end the CIA program to arm Syrian rebel factions, a program that has been active for years, and highly criticized for having seen a lot of the US provided arms ending up in the hands of al-Qaeda and other Islamists.
This arms smuggling scheme had long-standing problems, and was frozen earlier this year because the rebel factions the US was supporting have been fighting one another increasingly, and have been less and less interested in fighting either ISIS or the Syrian government.
This move won’t end the US arming of the Kurdish YPG, as this scheme is wholly independent from the CIA program, and is being run directly by the Pentagon. The factions getting arms from the CIA are mostly based in Idlib, with some smaller groups along the Jordan border.
President Trump has been seen as sour on the CIA program since before he took office, complaining that the US didn’t have good enough intelligence on who the rebels are, and should focus on fighting ISIS. Still, it took quite a few months to finalize this decision.
I’ve got the odd suspicion that Putin’s little G-20 bro-down with Trump has something to do with this. I swear, give that brilliant Russian bastard 15 minutes and he could talk a Christian Scientist into taking a bong rip. Cheers mate!
I wish he would have bitch slapped him into reality with Iran also.
Meant as a reply to comrade.
Wow, the don sees reality (we have no idea), accepts that reality and acts on it; totally out of character. That’s not the way reality is interpreted and responsed to by neo-cons and Dem neo-liberal interventionalists. What can you say? I’m shocked. When will he backtrack on this? Is McMaster involved in this decision to cut off the CIA but keep the more pragmatic Pentagon arming of the Kurds going? Is old man McCain upset? Hey, the CIA effort to arm the “moderate rebels” didn’t start off to well in Benghazi.
With the US establishing bases in NE Syria there is no chance that this is more than a diversion to silence opposition and allow a covert buildup, likely a SE Syria refuge for rebels from the N to be armed more easily from Syria.
But, our war based economy must be highest priority, for not supplying
weapons to both sides of a battle, surely that cuts our profit in half.
Not to worry. The 65 billion increase military and all the Saudi bombs being dropped on Yeman should keep arms factories going along nicely. Recruitment in all the terrorist organizations is bound to keep up too.
My suspicion is that Trump and Putin agreed that the Kurd YPG could have a partition in Syria and that the U.S. could have a military base on the Syrian and Iraq border. If so, Syria and Iran would surely hyperventilate.
“…Syria and Iran would surely hyperventilate.”
…not to mention Turkey. I’m willing to bet that Erdogan would surely do something monumentally stupid…and catastrophic.
If so, Erdogan will be acting alone; his possible non-Turkmen DAESH allies have officially cut off from resupply.
You have that right, mate .. Turkey would “hyperventilate” more than either Syria or Iran. Erdogan’s sheer hatred of Kurds is so great that the chance of him doing something monumentally stupid (and catastrophic) are fairly high.
Trump finally backing away at least some what from the Syrian civil war as he alluded to in his campaign.
Right. Remember when DT said regime change in Syria was no longer a goal, then dropped some 100 cruise missiles a few days later? Americans should face up to the fact that deep state pulls the puppets strings.
Still a good thing he is backing away from arming the rebels.
There is nothing good to say about the outcome in Raqqa and Mosul with the stepped up bombing of civilian areas since Trump took office however.
Good job Trump!
At this point I am thankful for any semblance of critical analysis the don’t exhibits.. G-d knows that all the generals on the front are salivating for a WIN… But any wins will be fleeting.. Just too many bad actions on all sides, but we win the prize for brain dead ideas and “never mind” outcums.. Just more lives and treasure sacrificed on the alter of
This is what I wanted when I voted for Trump. It never would have happened if Hillary won.
Feel the same way. HOWEVER…Just because he says something dosen’t mean he’s going to do it. Presidents have this funny habit of lying.
Yeah, sadly, this just means it’s the end of the overt part of the program. Welcome to the covert part of the program!
Assuming he even means what he says and that they even listen to him; who would even prosecute the secret services for insubordination to Trump?
They will simply route more guns through Israel.
Israel would never be so blatant as to do the work themselves. They’ll browbeat and threaten some spineless head-of-state to take up the slack.
Why not? They have openly bombed Syria numerous times?
I was talking about running guns which was in response to Pat Dunne talking about running guns.
I wonder whether Trumpo bothered to warn Pompeo?
This should end the squabble between the CIA and Pentagon as to who gets to run the Syrian war. CIA DAESH are out after years of fail after fail, Pentagon SDF/YPGs are in. Trump is at last asserting some control over the otherwise amok Deep State.
Unfortunately the guns will will continue to flow, even if to more reliable fighters. We’ll see what happens when DAESH start calling themselves Syrian Defense Forces for weapons to do whatever they want with, how well the Pentagon can manage their proxies.
Not a great deal for Russia-Syria; the U.S. ideally should have been forced out for a lasting peace, but Syria’s own forces clearly aren’t up to that task.
I am unhappy about the partition of Syria, but agreement between the Russians and the Americans would have not occurred with Hillary. Soon Trump will have a bigger challenge concerning Malorussia. That will be the real test.
I’m not happy with the partition of Syria either, mate .. However, agreement between the Russians and Americans wouldn’t have occurred with Hillary as POTUS. I agree that Trump will soon have a bigger challenge regarding Malorussiya. He should allow it, as this will be the real test, and define him.
This doesn’t mean Washington is abandoning terrorism as a tool of foreign policy. This just affects Operation Timber Sycamore.
WAPO spins this as Trump being the stooge of Putin.
Why supply the opposition anymore when we’ve deployed into Syria large military bases and a steady supply of Bradley’s with America’s military in charge.As for our friends in Turkey I hate to say maybe a Kurdistan doesn’t seem to bad after all.A dependable ally who has fought alongside us against ISIS,and sacrificed for it’s people and I bet Assad would rather deal with the Kurds rather than The Turkish Sunni Muslim Erdogan.In the meantime build up our bases may have to deploy those Nukes we have in Turkey pointed at Russia into Kurdistan one day,maybe if we can negotiate a treaty between them we can station nukes on both countries.SuperPower.USA