Pentagon and CIA Chiefs Are Sceptical That A Syrian Truce Will Hold

Wall Street Journal: Pentagon, CIA Chiefs Don’t Think Russia Will Abide by Syria Cease-Fire

Emerging alliance of Russia hawks in cabinet exposes disagreement in the administration.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s top military and intelligence advisers don’t believe Russia will abide by a just-announced cease-fire in Syria and want the administration to ready plans to increase pressure on Moscow by expanding covert support to rebels fighting the Russian-backed Assad regime.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter; Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan have voiced increasingly hawkish views toward Moscow in recent White House meetings, jointly calling for new measures to “inflict real pain on the Russians," a senior administration official said.

The emerging alliance of Russia hawks exposes discord within the administration among defense and diplomatic officials and could put pressure on Mr. Obama to take stronger action against Moscow. But doing so risks pulling the U.S. deeper into a proxy fight there, with Russia backing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and showing little sign of losing its resolve.

Russia’s bombing campaign in Syria, launched last year, has infuriated the CIA in particular because the strikes have directly targeted CIA-backed rebels, U.S. officials say, weakening more moderate forces opposed to the regime.

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WNU Editor: Pentagon and CIA chiefs are sceptical for a good reason .... Russian air strikes have devastated U.S. backed rebel allies in Syria. But what makes this particular cease-fire different is the personal involvement of Russian President Putin .... Putin’s Personal Intervention Lends Weight To Syria Ceasefire (IBTimes). He has put his own credibility on the line .... which on Syria he has avoided in the past. Unfortunately ....  I suspect that it will not be enough. The U.S. and Russia may want some resolution to the Syrian war, but the combatants on the ground have a different view .... and they are the ones on the ground who are doing the fighting.