The Patriot Post® · Trump's Ending CIA's Rebel-Arming Program Is No Conspiracy

The mainstream media’s obsession over anything and everything Russian is well passed reaching levels of pathology. It’s as if a story on Donald Trump can’t be reported without some reference implicating a nefarious relationship to Vladimir Putin. After hyperventilating that Trump had a not-so-secret “super-secret” meeting with Putin in a room full of people, the Leftmedia had to move on. That came in the form of this Washington Post headline on Wednesday: “Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow.” While the article admits that there has been a long-running debate over the value of the CIA’s covert rebel-arming program, the story insinuates that Trump’s motive for ending it is primarily due to the fact that the Russians don’t like it.

A better and more logical take on Trump’s decision is a question over what the U.S.‘s primary objective is in Syria. For Trump, it’s becoming ever more clear that the first goal is defeating the Islamic State, not arming potential jihadis who oppose Bashar al-Assad. As for the Russia problem, it was Barack Obama who in 2013 jumped at Putin’s face-saving offer to take the lead in Syria by negotiating a non-military intervention with Assad after he crossed Obama’s “red line.” And the biggest problem in the region, the Islamic State, developed because of the vacuum Obama created in his retreat from Iraq.

While the decision to stop arming Assad-opposed rebels is something Moscow wanted, it was also desired by Jordan, an important U.S. ally in the region. With the eventual goal being a lasting ceasefire in Syria, the reality is that the U.S. will have to make some deals with Russia one way or another. The challenge for Trump is to navigate the mess that Obama’s feckless leadership created. (And, by the way, the Leftmedia’s baseline assumption is that Obama could do no wrong.) The fact of the matter is Putin was involved in Syria well before Trump ever arrived on the scene. That only provides more opportunity for the MSM to spin every decision Trump makes as more “evidence” in support of their collusion delusion.