As the Arab Spring roiled much of the Middle East, many wondered if the fragile rule of the Alawite sect in Syria would hold. Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, represents a small Shia minority (Alawites) in his home country of Syria and has oppressed his Sunni opposition throughout his tenure as leader. With the financial and military backing of the theocratic Shiite nation Iran (and thus Russia), Assad struck back with great force at peaceful protests throughout the country calling for his ouster. Assad's brutal suppression of protests ignited the Syrian Civil War, fought between various rebel factions and the Assad government for control of Syria. However, what started as a movement defected soldiers and infuriated citizens soon morphed into a rebellion of extremists whose inclinations to turn Syria into a Sunni controlled theocracy have extended into Iraq.
Now, the United States, which has been staunchly opposed to Assad and his various backers, has to choose which enemy is worth their military efforts. Although Assad's army has caused the majority of deaths in the Syrian Civil War and has used chemical agents such as Sarin on its own population, the barbarism of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and other extremist groups fighting for control of Syria has captured the attention of the world, and forced President Barack Obama into action. Now, The United States fights alongside Russia and Iran in an effort to eradicate ISIS, as it aids Gulf States like Saudi Arabia and regional players like Turkey defeat Assad through opposition forces.
In a stunning expose of the administration's response to the Syrian Civil War, Seymour Hersh has uncovered a discord between the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding the arming of Syrian rebel groups and the proper way to defeat ISIS (or Assad). As it appears, the Joint Chiefs traded intelligence with Russia, Israel and Germany in an effort to keep Assad in power and fight extremist groups on the ground. Hersh asserts that this intelligence was later shared with the Assad regime
However, the CIA has remained adamant that Assad leave power and has worked to arm various "moderate" rebel groups in the conflict. As Hersh reports, according to an intelligence report, "what was started as a covert US programme to arm and support the moderate rebels fighting Assad had been co-opted by Turkey, and had morphed into an across-the-board technical, arms and logistical programme for all of the opposition, including Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State. The so-called moderates had evaporated and the Free Syrian Army was a rump group stationed at an airbase in Turkey."
Thus, it appears the CIA, in cooperation with Turkey and the Gulf States, has been funding ISIS and other opposition forces on the ground in an effort to defeat Assad. This, of course, occurs as the Joint Chiefs seek to bolster the Assad regime and fight the spread of Islamic extremism.
This discord represents the myriad positions officials have taken on the war in Syria and the ultimate lack of a positive outcome for the Western world.
