Ep. 5474 – Martin Smith on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham Leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani – 3/9/2021

Scott talks to documentary producer Martin Smith about the subject of his newest project, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Smith considers Jolani and his fighters to be something of a separate group from al Qaeda and ISIS who should be treated as such—but Scott challenges him with the fact that Jolani, a sworn follower of Ayman al-Zawahiri, is just as guilty of terrorism and war crimes as any al Qaeda leader. Throughout the war in Syria, many in the U.S. have tried to portray Jolani and his fighters as “moderate rebels,” whom we can support in order to overthrow the Assad regime; but Scott reminds us that if anything, Assad is the most moderate option amid a sea of bad actors, given that he has cooperated with America for years and, by regional standards, presides over a fairly stable and tolerant country. In other words, the lesson of two decades of wars in the Middle East should be that no matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse.

Martin Smith has spent 25 years as a producer for PBS’s Frontline documentary series. Follow him on Twitter @Martin28Smith.

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