“By 2013, ISIS and al-Nusra dominated the battlefield, and yet the US still prevented Assad from crushing the insurgency. As Van Wagenen documents, Washington:

Pressured Jordan to allow jihadists free movement across its border;

Supplied weapons through covert programs like Operation Timber Sycamore;

Worked with Türkiye and Saudi Arabia to keep a steady flow of foreign fighters into Syria

This policy—arming the terrorists who had just a decade previously attacked the United States, and who were attacking US forces in Iraq at the same time—wasn’t just reckless, it was criminal.”