Swordsmyth
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In what may be one of the most significant foreign policy decisions of his first year in office, Trump is shutting down the CIA's covert program to arm rebels fighting the Syrian government. This would constitute a monumental shift in terms of US priorities in Syria which throughout most of the 6-year long war have focused on removing Bashar al-Assad. The Washington Post reports:
Image via Syrian opposition social media/ The Blaze
Tillerson has made similar remarks throughout the summer. But there were at times contradictory statements being issued from other areas of the administration, especially the State Department and ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who often continued to reiterate the "Assad must go" line - a policy put in place when Obama first uttered those words all the way back in summer of 2011. The divergent statements left pundits confused as to what America's future role in Syria would look like. The Trump administration has from the start faced an uphill battle against hawks and neocons in D.C. regarding Syria, who are already accusing the president of appeasing Assad and "falling into the Russia trap."
More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...bama-era-cia-program-which-sent-arms-jihadist
Now we need to see him bring the boys back home.
This is good but it is not yet enough.
Officials said Trump made the decision to scrap the CIA program nearly a month ago, after an Oval Office meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of a July 7 meeting in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The move is consistent with signals coming out of the White House over the past months, as well as in keeping with Trump's early campaign promises that he would seek to wind down the war in Syria by making ISIS the only objective, and not the removal of Assad. There have been additional hints at willingness to work closer with Russia in a strategic anti-terror partnership in Syria. Secretary of State Tillerson's said in an April interview with ABC News, as well several weeks ago, that Assad's fate would be up for the Syrian people to decide, adding that:
In that regard, we are hopeful that we can work with Russia and use their influence to achieve areas of stabilization throughout Syria and create the conditions for a political process through Geneva in which we can engage all of the parties on the way forward, and it is through that political process that we believe the Syrian people will lawfully be able to decide the fate of Bashar al-Assad.
Image via Syrian opposition social media/ The Blaze
Tillerson has made similar remarks throughout the summer. But there were at times contradictory statements being issued from other areas of the administration, especially the State Department and ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who often continued to reiterate the "Assad must go" line - a policy put in place when Obama first uttered those words all the way back in summer of 2011. The divergent statements left pundits confused as to what America's future role in Syria would look like. The Trump administration has from the start faced an uphill battle against hawks and neocons in D.C. regarding Syria, who are already accusing the president of appeasing Assad and "falling into the Russia trap."
More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...bama-era-cia-program-which-sent-arms-jihadist
Now we need to see him bring the boys back home.
This is good but it is not yet enough.
