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[AcademicSaucer]

President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to find and kill the leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria that the administration had largely ignored until now and that has been at the vanguard of the fight against the Syrian government, U.S. officials said.

The decision to deploy more drones and intelligence assets against the militant group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra reflects Obama’s concern that it is turning parts of Syria into a new base of operations for al-Qaeda on Europe’s southern doorstep, the officials said.

The move underlines the extent to which Obama has come to prioritize the counter­terrorism mission in Syria over efforts to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, as al-Nusra is among the most effective forces­­ battling the Syrian government.

That shift is likely to accelerate once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has said he will be even more aggressive in going after militants than Obama, a stance that could lead to the expansion of the campaign against al-Nusra, possibly in direct cooperation with Moscow. The group now calls itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham — or Front for the Conquest of Syria — and says it has broken with al-Qaeda, an assertion discounted by U.S. officials.

The United States has conducted sporadic strikes in the past against veteran al-Qaeda members who migrated to northwestern Syria from Afghanistan and Pakistan to join al-Nusra and whom U.S. officials suspected of plotting against the United States and its allies.

Obama’s new order gives the U.S. military’s Joint Special ­Operations Command, or JSOC, wider authority and additional intelligence-collection re­sources to go after al-Nusra’s broader leadership, not just al-Qaeda veterans or those directly involved in external plotting.

So far, Russian air-defense systems and aircraft haven’t interfered with stepped-up U.S. operations against al-Nusra. Officials attributed Moscow’s acquiescence to the limited number of U.S. aircraft involved in the missions and to Russia’s interest in letting Washington combat one of the Assad regime’s most potent enemies within the insurgency. U.S. officials said they provided notifications to the Russians before the al-Nusra strikes to avoid misunderstandings.

U.S. officials who opposed the decision to go after al-Nusra’s wider leadership warned that the United States would effectively be doing the Assad government's bidding by weakening a group on the front line of the counter-Assad fight. The strikes, these officials warned, could backfire on the United States by bolstering the group’s standing, helping it attract more recruits and resources.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...9839a-a51b-11e6-8042-f4d111c862d1_story.html?

TLDR: The US in the past didnt really go after Al-Qaeda in Syria all that much for fear of helping Assad, thats over now.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

The idea that we could get rid of Assad and not have ISIS or some other equivalent group take over was arrogant hubris of the highest order.

Same sort of arrogance that sent us into Iraq.

Glad that it's being realized, albeit 3 years and millions of refugees too late.

 

[Kolx]

I'm pretty sure the US already did many air strikes against Alnusra and their leaders in Syria before now. This is just to focus on taking the big head before Obama leaves office.

 

[Damerman]

The idea that we could get rid of Assad and not have ISIS or some other equivalent group take over was arrogant hubris of the highest order.

Same sort of arrogance that sent us into Iraq.

Glad that it's being realized, albeit 3 years and millions of refugees too late.

What the fuuuuuuuck are you talking about? Who the fuck do you think is taking back mosul? Do you pay attention at all? Iraq is not an argument for you, stfu about it if you are not going to acknowledge the fact that there are good Iraqi citizens sacrificing their lives for their sovereignty....
Im so fucking mad.

This post truth society we live in is depressing me to no end.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Take out Assad before Trump becomes President or they become allies and commits war crimes.

 

[sphagnum]

Trump will guarantee Assad wins, since he'll have direct US and Russian support now.

 

[Kathian]

The idea that we could get rid of Assad and not have ISIS or some other equivalent group take over was arrogant hubris of the highest order.

Same sort of arrogance that sent us into Iraq.

Glad that it's being realized, albeit 3 years and millions of refugees too late.

Yep. Assad has held out - and frankly am not sure what the West expects to happen to the Shia community if it were to fall.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

What the fuuuuuuuck are you talking about? Who the fuck do you think is taking back mosul? Do you pay attention at all? Iraq is not an argument for you, stfu about if you are not going to acknowledge the fact that there are god iraqi citizens sacrificing their lives for their sovereignty....
Im so fucking mad.

This post truth society we live in is depressing me to no end.

Calm down, I said nothing of the sort. Iraq is finally a stable country, but it took almost a decade of chaos and blood for that to happen.

Referencing the arrogance of the Iraq invasion and the idiocy of the "greet us as liberators" neocon crew has nothing to do with the state of the country today, or the people who live there.

 

[-Silver-]

Take out Assad before Trump becomes President or they become allies and commits war crimes.

Taking out Assad would screw up the whole region and I don't think that Trump is the sort of person that come up with a rational plan on how he will rebuild Syria.

 

[Valhelm]

Take out Assad before Trump becomes President or they become allies and commits war crimes.

That wouldn't improve the situation at all.

 

[Velcro Fly]

Regime change is probably not the best idea over there right now.

It probably was never the best idea.

 

[Nozomi]

Take out Assad before Trump becomes President or they become allies and commits war crimes.

And let another ISIS inspired group take over? Sounds like a good idea...

 

[RPGCrazied]

Taking out Assad would screw up the whole region and I don't think that Trump is the sort of person that come up with a rational plan on how he will rebuild Syria.

That wouldn't improve the situation at all.

And let another ISIS inspired group take over? Sounds like a good idea...

And what do you suggest then? Let Assad be buddy buddy with Trump?

 

[AcademicSaucer]

And what do you suggest then? Let Assad be buddy buddy with Trump?

Obama already gave up on taking out Assad tho.

 

[Arkeband]

When we're bombing 6 or 7 countries over 8 years and we can't quantify if any of it is helping, it's probably time to change strategies.

 

[Valhelm]

And what do you suggest then? Let Assad be buddy buddy with Trump?

Taking out Assad this point would just give the country to the far-right Islamists, leading to widespread oppression and potential genocide of non-Sunni minorities. Moreover, the military action needed to quickly topple that government would have to be huge. Many, many innocent people would die.

This is absolutely a long shot, but I think the best option would be a situation in which Assad remains in power but concedes some authority to the rest of the government, hopefully also ceding autonomy or independence to Rojava.

 

[gutter_trash]

I am of the position that ISIS and Al-Quada and their affiliates must be eliminated first before anything else

these terror groups need to be eliminated first

 

[Hickbilly Deluxe]

Trump will guarantee Assad wins, since he'll have direct US and Russian support now.

Hate to say it, but that may very well be the best result. The guy may be a piece of shit, but we know what we get with him. Everyone else? It's a best guess scenario. The devil you know...