Syrian war

Most CIA-backed rebels in Syria ‘anti-American, anti-Western and anti-democracy’

The majority of the fighting power of the Syrian ‘moderates’ is in the hands of so-called jihadists and extremists, says Charles Shoebridge, former UK counter-terrorism officer. They are generally Islamists who don’t support democracy, he added.

...Yes, it is absolutely predictable and was widely predicted. It’s part of a consistent pattern that goes back some years. Let’s remember the context of this, of course, as your report indicated, was that Obama, as a part of this allegedly anti-ISIS strategy, recognizing that air power is not enough to defeat this group, [forwarded] the creation of a division – a land army, if you like - of so-called moderate rebels trained and armed and equipped by the US throughout. This has been beset by failure. People have defected in the past. And also there have been widespread defections amongst the rebels that the US has been more covertly training in cooperation with countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and perhaps even Turkey over the last four years.