Trump ends CIA support for anti-Assad Syria rebels

The hawks, especially among democrats will hate this because they are on such a "Russian everything" trip and they just love dealing weapons.  Democrats, get a grip. This was a very bad policy anyway.  Now let's stop bombing. (update: oops well it looks like the Obama era program was such a flop--who could have guessed that arming nasty mercenaries could have been unhelpful -- that there hasn't been a peep out of the press in 3 days.  My mistake, the hawks are simmering but with zipped lips.)

     Al Jazeera's Heidi Zhou-Castro, reporting from Washington, DC, said the efficacy of the CIA programme to support "moderate" rebels fighting Assad has come under question since Russia's intervention in 2015 to support Assad.
     "But even at its inception, this programme was considered to be minuscule - it would only arm a few hundred Syrian rebel fighters a month," she said.
"And then in 2015 when Russia entered the conflict, throwing its oversized military weight behind Assad ... the CIA programme's perceived impact diminished to nearly inconsequential.
     "But the US held on to it, apparently in an effort to maintain it as a bargaining tool in future negotiations with Russia."
     Juan Cole, history professor at the University of Michigan, told Al Jazeera that the groups the CIA was training and arming are small and have largely been defeated.
"So they're not much of a bargaining chip if that's what they were being held for," he said.

Update:  With Syria you just can't believe anything.  Her is a another report.

     US Continues Supporting Terrorists in Syria  by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
     It’s naive to believe otherwise. It’s central to US strategy since launching war for regime change.
     Tactics alone changed from then to now, not Washington’s objective – allied with Israel and other rogue states to topple Syria’s legitimate government

Here is the report which includes the Russian reponse tot he so-called news of ending the program.  Be Suspicious of the Fake News that US is withdrawing from Syria and ceasing to arm 'Rebels' - PaulCraigRoberts.org:  Full disclosure alert:  Roberts has a checkered past and has seemed to flip flop on big views and some consider him a white supremist and you have to wonder about his Reagan era supply side economics work and his stint at the WSJ.

This story fills out the details of the arming of rebels.  Trump ends CIA support for anti-Assad Syria rebels' | News | Al Jazeera:

This is where the story first broke  washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-ends-covert-cia-program-to-arm-anti-assad-rebels