Experts to Trump: Russia is not our ally in the war on ISIS
Trump shared intelligence claiming Russia is on the same team.
Updated by Alex Ward@AlexWardVoxalex.ward@vox.com May 16, 2017, 2:30pm EDT
President Donald Trump’s decision to share highly classified intelligence about ISIS with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak continues to spur shock and outrage on Capitol Hill.
Trump thinks it’s really not that a big of a deal for a simple reason: Russia, he argues, is a vital ally in the war against ISIS.
That’s not a new argument for the notoriously pro-Kremlin president. In a Fox News interview on February 5, Trump told Bill O’Reilly that “it’s better to get along with Russia than not. And if Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all over the world — that’s a good thing.”
There’s just one problem: Most national security experts believe Russia isn’t remotely as committed to the ISIS fight as the US. In Syria, for instance, Washington’s top goal is to beat back ISIS and retake its self-declared capital of Raqqa. Russia’s top goal, by contrast, is to ensure that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad manages to stay in power. That at times has led to Russia bombing US-backed rebels the Pentagon was relying on to fight both Assad and ISIS.
Unlike Trump, the Pentagon itself seems to be under no illusions about Russia. Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a Defense Department spokesperson, said the Pentagon has "always encouraged Russia to act in accordance with its stated intention of combating ISIS” and still calls “upon Russia to act as a responsible member of the international community.” Defense officials who served in the Obama administration think that trying to persuade Russia to do more against ISIS is a fool’s errand.
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https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/16/15646202/trump-russia-isis-syria-assad
