The decision doesn’t go far enough.
The Trump administration is reportedly cutting a CIA program that has provided arms to Syrian rebels since 2013. This has provoked a heated reaction from a media obsessed with Russia, and from Russia hawks like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said such a decision would represent a “complete capitulation” to Bashar Assad, Russia, and Iran.
But if anything, the decision doesn’t go far enough. Congress should tell the Defense Department to stop equipping, arming, and training Syrians as well.
These efforts go back to 2014, when the U.S. and Turkey partnered to aid “moderate” Syrian rebels. From the beginning, critics described the effort as a “disaster in the making.” Militant factions backed by the CIA and the Pentagon have been fighting each other. U.S. arms have fallen into the hands of ISIS. Turkey, meanwhile, has become an increasingly unreliable partner as it descends into domestic authoritarianism.
So stopping the program, while a small step, makes sense. Yet hysteria over Russia has prompted many pundits and politicians to oppose the change. CBS claims that the “timing of the decision raises questions for the White House” because of a previously undisclosed conversation President Donald Trump had with Russia President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit. But the “timing” isn’t really suspicious: Trump called arming Syrian rebels a mistake as far back as September 2014, and he signaled after the election that he was likely to abandon the CIA arms program.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/07/20/trump-admin-cutting-cia-program-that-arm
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