A key longstanding goal of the USG is to isolate and marginalize ISIL and Nusra from other Syrian rebel groups. This has been controversial among many rebel groups; past attempts by the USG to marginalize Nusra from other groups have met with strong resistance, leading some of these groups to affirm solidarity with Nusra instead.
If Nusra gets closer to ISIL, it's harder for other rebel groups to resist the US campaign to force them to cut their ties to Nusra.
>From the US point of view, any flavor of Al Qaeda is pretty much the same;
people that it's way OK to bomb. Whether Al Qaeda types become even more
extreme Al Qaeda types is not on their list of things to worry about;
indeed, it strengthens the USG cause, just like the beheadings and other
horrible things done by ISIL, looped on TV, have strengthened the USG cause.
Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1
On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 3:59 PM, Marv Gandall <marvgand2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> If this Reuters report (see link below) is accurate, it points to a
> potentially very significant development in the Syrian civil war.
>
> The Islamic State and the Nusra Front have violently confronted each other
> for leadership of the powerful jihadist wing of the Syrian opposition to
> the Assad regime. Now it appears that the latter is splintering in the wake
> of the prestige and resources which have accrued to the Islamic State in
> its rapid advance across a large swathe of Syria and Iraq. The US-led air
> campaign, intended to halt ISIS, has instead reportedly accelerated
> defections from the Nusra Front to the Islamic State, and laid the basis
> for a merger or formal alliance of the two organizations.
>
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/26/us-syria-crisis-nusra-insight-idUSKCN0HL11720140926?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
> _______________________________________________
> pen-l mailing list
> pen-l at lists.csuchico.edu
> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
>