Michael Weiss

you know, our eyes and ears on the ground in eastern Syria to contain and ensure that ISIS does not come back and rebuild the caliphate. So the Turks have maintained, this is ludicrous, this is contradictory and also insulting. We are a NATO ally. And it's like if Turkey had come to Mexico and started building an Al Qaeda franchise, that's how they compare it.

you know, our eyes and ears on the ground in eastern Syria to contain and ensure that ISIS does not come back and rebuild the caliphate. So the Turks have maintained, this is ludicrous, this is contradictory and also insulting. We are a NATO ally. And it's like if Turkey had come to Mexico and started building an Al Qaeda franchise, that's how they compare it.

you know, our eyes and ears on the ground in eastern Syria to contain and ensure that ISIS does not come back and rebuild the caliphate. So the Turks have maintained, this is ludicrous, this is contradictory and also insulting. We are a NATO ally. And it's like if Turkey had come to Mexico and started building an Al Qaeda franchise, that's how they compare it.

No, Idlib level infrastructure is better than you have in New Orleans, apparently.

No, Idlib level infrastructure is better than you have in New Orleans, apparently.

No, Idlib level infrastructure is better than you have in New Orleans, apparently.

Yeah. Well, the answer to your first question is the U.S. is deeply concerned about the groups that Turkey has sort of given patronage to. So I need to be a little bit more specific here. I'm trying to keep it broad. So Turkey has its own consortium of slash ex-Free Syrian Army groups. members, and frankly, just mercenaries that they have built over time, known as the Syrian National Army.

Yeah. Well, the answer to your first question is the U.S. is deeply concerned about the groups that Turkey has sort of given patronage to. So I need to be a little bit more specific here. I'm trying to keep it broad. So Turkey has its own consortium of slash ex-Free Syrian Army groups. members, and frankly, just mercenaries that they have built over time, known as the Syrian National Army.

Yeah. Well, the answer to your first question is the U.S. is deeply concerned about the groups that Turkey has sort of given patronage to. So I need to be a little bit more specific here. I'm trying to keep it broad. So Turkey has its own consortium of slash ex-Free Syrian Army groups. members, and frankly, just mercenaries that they have built over time, known as the Syrian National Army.

I refer to them in the piece as their new janissaries, if you know your Ottoman history. They've dispatched these guys abroad to foreign conflicts, including Libya, where the SNA has fought General Khalifa Haftar's army there, which is backed by Russia, too.

I refer to them in the piece as their new janissaries, if you know your Ottoman history. They've dispatched these guys abroad to foreign conflicts, including Libya, where the SNA has fought General Khalifa Haftar's army there, which is backed by Russia, too.

I refer to them in the piece as their new janissaries, if you know your Ottoman history. They've dispatched these guys abroad to foreign conflicts, including Libya, where the SNA has fought General Khalifa Haftar's army there, which is backed by Russia, too.

So Turkey has been sort of projecting its power using proxies that it's recruited and built up over time as part of, I think, frankly, their own regional hegemonic designs, right? Erdogan, in many ways, fashions himself as a new sultan. He wants not a recreation of the Ottoman Empire, but definitely he wants to make Turkey great again, and this is part of that project. HTS in Idlib.

So Turkey has been sort of projecting its power using proxies that it's recruited and built up over time as part of, I think, frankly, their own regional hegemonic designs, right? Erdogan, in many ways, fashions himself as a new sultan. He wants not a recreation of the Ottoman Empire, but definitely he wants to make Turkey great again, and this is part of that project. HTS in Idlib.

So Turkey has been sort of projecting its power using proxies that it's recruited and built up over time as part of, I think, frankly, their own regional hegemonic designs, right? Erdogan, in many ways, fashions himself as a new sultan. He wants not a recreation of the Ottoman Empire, but definitely he wants to make Turkey great again, and this is part of that project. HTS in Idlib.

is headed by Jolani. Jolani was sent into Syria in 2011 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time was the head of what was known as the Islamic State of Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi wanted Jolani to start creating the ISI franchise in Syria, which, as we know, became ISIS. Jolani, though, had his own grand designs. He's megalomaniacal, He is a native Syrian, unlike Baghdadi, who's Iraqi.

is headed by Jolani. Jolani was sent into Syria in 2011 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time was the head of what was known as the Islamic State of Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi wanted Jolani to start creating the ISI franchise in Syria, which, as we know, became ISIS. Jolani, though, had his own grand designs. He's megalomaniacal, He is a native Syrian, unlike Baghdadi, who's Iraqi.

is headed by Jolani. Jolani was sent into Syria in 2011 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time was the head of what was known as the Islamic State of Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi wanted Jolani to start creating the ISI franchise in Syria, which, as we know, became ISIS. Jolani, though, had his own grand designs. He's megalomaniacal, He is a native Syrian, unlike Baghdadi, who's Iraqi.

And over time, he decided not only would he break with ISIS and create his own show in Syria, which was known as Jabhat al-Nusra, but when Jabhat al-Nusra became an al-Qaeda franchise, he played similar games with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaeda after bin Laden's death. And what had started as a kind of public relations gambit on breaking with al-Qaeda actually became a legitimate...

And over time, he decided not only would he break with ISIS and create his own show in Syria, which was known as Jabhat al-Nusra, but when Jabhat al-Nusra became an al-Qaeda franchise, he played similar games with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaeda after bin Laden's death. And what had started as a kind of public relations gambit on breaking with al-Qaeda actually became a legitimate...