Ep. 5099 – Patrick Cockburn on the Winding Down of the War in Syria – 10/18/2019

Scott talks to Patrick Cockburn about the situation with the Kurds in Syria. Scott calls Syria a win-win-win-win: The Kurds have negotiated a deal with Assad that will give them some autonomy and protection from Turkey, Turkey gets a roughly 30-mile border buffer with Syria, the American people get a partial withdrawal from an unnecessary theater of war, and the Russians see their support for Assad more or less affirmed. The only real losers are those who want to see a perpetual American presence in the region and an ouster of Assad—though Cockburn is quick to remind us about the many tragic deaths and displacements that have arisen from the war as a whole. Scott and Cockburn go on to briefly discuss U.S. policy in the rest of the Middle East.

Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the author of The Age of Jihad and Chaos & Caliphate.

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