Spies Warned White House: Don’t Hit Al Qaeda in Syria

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The fight with al Nusra may have been inevitable, but it risks unraveling the Obama administration’s shaky military strategy in Syria.

“Current U.S. policy—attacking ISIS without seeking an end to the Assad regime, or attacking al Nusra on some days, but not others—is strategically incoherent,” said Harmer, the Syria analyst. “As long as the U.S. strategy does not specifically seek the destruction of the Assad regime, our tactics will be at best contradictory and at worst counterproductive. “

“If the U.S. goes after Nusra, it’s an admission that our previous Syria strategy is in tatters,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an expert on terrorist groups. “What would broadening the campaign accomplish?” he asked. The root problems of jihadism that motivates fighters in the first place remains unaddressed in the military strategy, he said.
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