David Petraeus, the retired general and former CIA director, said the U.S. should consider working with members of an al Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria to fight the Islamic State.
In an exclusive statement to CNN, the former head of Central Command who led coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said some members of the al-Nusra Front in Syria could be convinced to join the coalition against the Islamic State.
“We should under no circumstances try to use or co-opt Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, as an organization against ISIL,” he told CNN, using the administration’s acronym for the Islamic State. “But some individual fighters, and perhaps some elements, within Nusra today have undoubtedly joined for opportunistic rather than ideological reasons. They saw Nusra as a strong horse, and they haven’t seen a credible alternative, as the moderate opposition has yet to be adequately resourced.
“The question, therefore, is whether it might be possible at some point to peel off so-called ‘reconcilables’ who would be willing to renounce Nusra and align with the moderate opposition [supported by the U.S. and the coalition] to fight against Nusra, ISIL and Assad,” Petraeus added, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “Doing so would require both the rise of much stronger, moderate opposition groups — backed, again, by the U.S. and the coalition seeking to defeat ISIL — and at the same time, intensified military pressure on all extremist groups.”
Petraeus spoke hours after the Daily Beast reported that he was quietly urging officials to consider the tactic. The story quoted four sources but did not have comment from Petraeus.
The general drew on his experience commanding Multi-National Force – Iraq in 2007-2008, drawing parallels with the tactic of encouraging Sunni militia members to fight al Qaeda in Iraq.
“In Iraq, during the surge, Sunni tribes and insurgent groups that were previously aligned with AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] switched sides because they concluded that there was a better alternative — namely, partnership with us and, ultimately, the government of Iraq — and because they saw that AQI was a losing bet,” Petraeus told CNN. “Seeking to co-opt those fighters was a very difficult decision for us because, in many cases, they had American blood on their hands.
“But it was in our national interest to do so, and the process of ‘reconciliation’ contributed significantly to the defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007-2008, a situation sustained for 2-3 more years,” he said. “Sadly, of course, many of the agreements made during the surge were subsequently broken, and that and other actions by the Iraqi government that alienated the Sunni Arab population in Iraq contributed to the resurrection of AQI in the form of ISIL.
“Although the situation in Syria today is different from that in Iraq during the surge in numerous ways, we should nonetheless consider the possibility of trying to defeat radical groups in Syria not simply by killing or capturing the entirety of their membership — though much of that will have to be done — but also by splintering their ranks by offering a credible alternative to those ‘reconcilable’ elements of those organizations,” he concluded.
