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<\/p>\nTerminating CIA Support for Syrian Rebels Sounds Death Knell for Western Attempt to Roll Back Iran and Russia in Syria.
\nBy Joshua Landis
\nFor Syria Comment – July 20, 2017<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s termination of CIA funds to Syrian rebels signals the death knell for Western efforts to roll back Iranian and Russian power in the Levant.<\/p>\n
The reassertion of Assad’s control over much of Syria underlines the success of Iran’s policy in the Northern Middle East.<\/p>\n
Western efforts to overturn Assad and\u00a0bring to power\u00a0a Sunni ascendency in Syria have failed as have efforts to flip Syria out of Russia’s and Iran’s orbit and into that of the United States and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
The cut off of CIA funding for\u00a0Syria’s\u00a0rebels\u00a0is the raggedy ending of America’s failed regime-change policy in Syria and\u00a0the region at large.<\/p>\n
President Trump called the wars in the Middle East “stupid wars” during his campaign. He called\u00a0America’s policy of regime-change a “failed policy.” This is his effort to concentrate narrowly on eliminating ISIS and ending Washington’s effort to drive\u00a0Assad from power\u00a0by force of arms.<\/p>\n
He believes that by working with the Russians, the United States will\u00a0destroy\u00a0ISIS more quickly. It should be added that Syria’s military, with Russian backing, has killed hundreds of ISIS fighters in the last several months. It has\u00a0driven\u00a0ISIS from\u00a0territory\u00a0twice the size\u00a0of Lebanon in the last two months alone.\u00a0Further efforts to weaken or destroy the Syrian Army will\u00a0only slow ISIS\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n
This decision by the security establishment has been a long time coming. As it became clear that Assad would not fall or step aside, particularly after Russia jumped into the conflict in Sept 2015, the arming of rebels to overthrow Assad became a vestigial\u00a0policy. President Macron articulated this position for the EU, when he declared that it was unrealistic to believe that Assad would go.<\/p>\n
Support for arming rebels has been waning since radicals\u00a0began\u00a0setting off bombs in\u00a0European capitals.<\/p>\n
Trump’s decision to stop\u00a0support for\u00a0Syrian rebels\u00a0will\u00a0be the final nail in the coffin\u00a0of\u00a0those factions which draw salaries from the CIA.<\/p>\n
More radical groups, such as those\u00a0historically\u00a0connected to al-Qaida and Ahrar al-Sham will also suffer from this decision.\u00a0The radical militias\u00a0prey on\u00a0the weaker ones. They extort arms and money from the\u00a0CIA-supported factions. The porous Syrian\u00a0border with Turkey can now also be shut more tightly. The need to\u00a0push resources\u00a0to the\u00a0CIA-vetted\u00a0militias, kept border crossings open to all rebels, including al-Qaida. Factions merge and regroup with such regularity, that border guards could not know who was fighting for\u00a0what end.<\/p>\n
This is the last gasp for\u00a0America’s policy of\u00a0regime-change which has so compromised its efforts to promote democracy and human rights in a part of the world that needs both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Terminating CIA Support for Syrian Rebels Sounds Death Knell for Western Attempt to Roll Back Iran and Russia in Syria. By Joshua Landis For Syria Comment – July 20, 2017 Trump\u2019s termination of CIA funds to Syrian rebels signals the death knell for Western efforts to roll back Iranian and Russian power in the Levant. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[122,39,38,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free-syrian-army","category-iran","category-russia","category-us"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n