In September 2020, a Syrian rebel group called the Hamza Division showed up in an unexpected place: the disputed post-Soviet territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, 600 miles from Aleppo. The rebels had been offered $1,500 per month each to fight for Azerbaijan against Armenia in the two countries’ border war over that disputed territory, several different news outlets reported.
Sayf Bulad, commander of the Hamza Division, has an interesting past. He served as a commander in a CIA-backed rebel group, appeared in pro–Islamic State propaganda, trained with the U.S. military, and fought other U.S.-backed rebel groups in Syria on behalf of the Turkish government. Now he was helping two former Soviet republics fight each other for money.
Bulad’s story is a symbol of the chaotic U.S. policy toward Syria and its unintended consequences.
U.S. policy toward Syria was torn between two often-clashing goals during the Obama administration: The CIA and State Department were focused on ending the Assad family’s decades-long rule, while the U.S. military was trying to crush violent religious extremists such as the Islamic State.
President Donald Trump inherited this awkwardly stitched-together policy and added in an element of chaos. The president himself said he wanted to end “endless wars” and claimed he was ready to pull U.S. forces out of Syria at the first opportunity. But he hired a collection of hawkish advisers who thought of Syria as a battlefield on which to make Iran and Russia bleed.
This story is from the February 2021 edition of Reason magazine.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
This story is from the February 2021 edition of Reason magazine.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
'All the Parents Want Is a Chance To Make That Choice'
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears wants state education dollars "to follow the child instead of the brick building."
Sen. Pat Toomey on Cryptocurrency and FTX's Collapse
Former Sen. Pat Toomey’s time in Congress, which began in 1999 after he won a House seat in eastern Pennsylvania, officially ended on January 3 when the new Senate session began.
Is Online Illness Culture Keeping People Sick?
WHILE THE FDA KEEPS EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS OUT OF REACH, THE SPOONIE WORLD MAKES A DIAGNOSIS INTO AN IDENTITY.
A.I. IS HERE
ChatGPT can create everything from novel dad jokes to fairly well-written computer code. At my prompting, it wrote a serviceable sonnet describing Gilgamesh’s failed quest for immortality.
SHODDY RESEARCH REINFORCES ANTI-VAPING NARRATIVE
Three years later, the World Journal of Oncology published a study that claimed vapers face about the same cancer risk as smokers. The authors said “prospective studies should be planned to mitigate the risk.”
THE BUDGET BATTLE BOOK
That job includes authoring, debating, and passing a budget for the astounding amount of discretionary federal spending that Congress is charged with managing each year—in this case, about $1.7 trillion.
NEW LAWS STOP COPS FROM LYING TO KIDS
Maryland and Washington state already enforce such a rule. And in 2021, Illinois and Oregon became the first two states to ban police from lying to minors during interrogations.
REAL ESTATE XENOPHOBIA
THERE’S A SPECTER supposedly haunting the globe’s expensive housing markets: the absentee foreign owner.
TO FIX POLICING, PUNISH BAD COPS
Jordan took a lot of abuse for his remark, which was generally interpreted as boobish and nihilistic.
The Luddites' Veto
BEWARE OF ACTIVISTS TOUTING \"RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION.\" THE SENSIBLE-SOUNDING SLOGAN MASKS A REACTIONARY AGENDA.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN SYRIA
"It is not easy to cover the refugees' lives, especially if they are Syrians like me; I'm lucky not to lose my home or one of my family members. Women in our Arab country, Syria, have endured a lot of pressure.
Putin's Endgame? Ukraine in Ruins
○ He may have envisioned an easy victory, as in Crimea. Instead he got Chechnya
HASAN IBRAHIM BELAL
Syrian Thoughts on public transportation
An Intimate, Exclusive Interview With MOUNEB TAIM
After a bloody day, the man walks sadly on a street where more than 80 men have been killed following an airstrike by warplanes.
Bashar Is Back
In a triumph over the U.S., Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, a long-time political pariah, is now reclaiming a place on the world stage
Troops Fight On in the Mideast
While Biden leaves Afghanistan and pulls back in Iraq, the U.S. military persists in Syria
The Awful Wisdom of the Hostage
What a new memoir reveals about endurance—and extreme remorse
An Intimate, Exclusive Interview With MOUNEB TAIM SYRIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST
Muneb Taim, born in 2001, is an Award-winning international photojournalist, covering news stories with a focus on social issues and war zones, currently based in the Syrian-Turkey border as a freelance photographer who mostly works for Anadolu Ajansı and Zuma Press.
DUSHKA ON WHEELS
The Tactical Employment of the Motorcycle DShK Heavy Machine Gun in Syria
SYRIA THE WILL TO SURVIVE
Exclusive Interview with Sameer Al-Doumy