Intercepted

09.30.159:00 AM ET

Putin Hijacks Obama’s War on ISIS

The Kremlin boss didn’t just start bombing Syria today. He made himself a central player in the world’s struggle to clamp down on the so-called Islamic State.
There’s a new decision-maker in the U.S. war against ISIS. But he’s not a general in the Pentagon or a minister in Damascus or Baghdad.
His office in the Kremlin and his name is Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president ordered a major bombing campaign Wednesday that struck U.S. allies and aided the forces of Syria’s dictator. That undermined one cornerstone of the American war effort—support of so-called “moderate” rebels—while making a second stated goal of the Obama administration more difficult: the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In effect, Moscow’s airstrikes were a message to Washington: If you want to get rid of Assad—or build a force that can take on ISIS—you’re going to have to deal with us.
“The dynamic has changed,” one U.S. defense official said. And the new American dependence on Russia could widen a rift between the two countries over the future of the Syrian regime and how to bring a five-year-long civil war to an end.
Rebel groups in Syria that have received military equipment from the United States said they came under attack on Wednesday by Russian aircraft. U.S. officials corroborated their account to The Daily Beast. Reports indicated that the group that was hit has its base in Hama, at a critical front line in the Syrian civil war. The group is believed to have been vetted by the CIA and has posted videos of its fighters using American anti-tank weapons against Syrian regime forces.
Had the U.S. and Russian militaries communicated about the airstrikes in advance, a process known as “deconfliction” that’s meant to protect forces in the air and on the ground, those attacks could have been prevented. But the U.S. and Russia never got past the early stages of such talks.
The strikes on U.S.-backed rebels belied prior assurances from Russian officials, including Putin, that their strikes were aimed at simply supporting Assad and attacking ISIS. That pledge apparently evaporated the moment Russian planes took off for their bombing runs. On Wednesday, U.S. officials acknowledged that the strikes, so far, appear to be conducted in areas where the Islamic militant group doesn’t have a stronghold.
“Multiple strikes” hit near the city of Homs, and areas west of the Damascus-Aleppo corridor, areas largely free of ISIS, one defense official said.
“It does appear that they were in areas where there probably no ISIL forces,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged to reporters, using the administration’s preferred acronym for the group. Oddly, Carter also said in the same press conference that he took “the Russians at their word” about their intentions in the air campaign—to strike at ISIS, and support the Assad regime.
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Privately, U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that the bombing campaign forces them to deal with Russia. Militarily, the U.S. will now have to watch for Russian strikes and their impact on the war. Diplomatically, the coalition must give Russia a seat at the table.
Some defense officials were visibly frustrated that Russia could have a say in the outcome of the war even after the United States has spent $3.87 billion, according to the latest Pentagon figures, and conducted nearly 7,100 strikes and sought in vain to train local fighters.
The picture that emerged Wednesday afternoon was of a U.S. administration that wasn’t taken by surprise when Russia attacked—American officials had been telegraphing the strikes for nearly 10 days—but that had no real response to a Russian offensive that has now encompassed both the ISIS forces that the U.S. is trying to destroy.
Privately, U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that the bombing campaign forces them to deal with Russia. Militarily, the U.S. will now have to watch for Russian strikes and their impact on the war. Diplomatically, the coalition must give Russia a seat at the table.
U.S. officials continued to argue that Russia’s entry into the war will backfire, potentially sucking the country into a quagmire. White House spokesman Josh Earnest referred Wednesday to the Soviet Union’s eight-year war in Afghanistan, also designed to bolster an ally.
“Russia will not succeed in imposing a military solution on Syria,” Earnest said.
But Russia’s strikes against the rebels seeking Assad’s ouster was the strongest reinforcement the beleaguered Syrian leader has seen in months. In Putin, Assad has found a coalition partner at a point when he appeared to be perilously close to losing key territory under his control.
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