Michael Rubin is dismayed over the way Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has convinced President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Tom Barrack that he has abandoned his previous support for Al Qaeda — not so long ago the American government had a $10 million bounty on his head — and can now be trusted to be a moderate, ready to make peace with all of his neighbors, including Israel, and prepared to treat Syrian minorities fairly. Rubin thinks it is the Americans who should protect those minorities by establishing no-fly no-drive zones in the territories where they live. More of his argument can be found here: “Syrian Kurds Need a No-Fly, No-Drive Zone,” by Michael Rubin, Middle East Forum, January 29, 2026:
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa must think President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, let alone the U.S. Senate, are idiots. While he talks about reform and a tolerant, peaceful Syria, Al-Sharaa is a former Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist who once had a $10 million U.S. government bounty on his head.
While Al-Sharaa changed his style, his language, and his tactics, there is little evidence he has changed his ideology. In an October 2025 trip to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, I visited United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR)-managed facilities and shanties for new arrivals from Syria. Alawis from Latakia and Homs not only spoke about the arrival of Al-Sharaa’s forces, but they showed videos of the subsequent harassment, beatings, and shootings of unarmed civilians. The interviewees in question were not Assad-era war criminals; UNHCR screens its refugees to limit services to non-combatants and Bashar al-Assad did not draft elderly women into his army. In visits to Syria and Armenia, Druze from Suwaydah and Christians from Aleppo told many of the same stories….
Al-Sharaa’s army attacked the Alawites in Latakia, killing more than 1,500 in March 2025. The victims were described as “remnants” of the Assad regime, but they were almost all civilians, not military men, murdered simply for belonging to the same sect as Bashar al-Assad. The Druze minority was also attacked in Sweida governorate; the Druze had been fighting with local Bedouin, and al-Sharaa sent in his army, ostensibly to impose a “peace” between the parties but instead his soldiers attacked Druze villages, killing more than a thousand. Israel came to the rescue of the Druze, by bombing Syrian military sites in Damascus, including a military headquarters and, as a pointed warning, a site right next to the presidential palace, as well Syrian army outposts in Sweida. Al-Sharaa got the message, and the Syrian army pulled out of the Druze stronghold.
As such sectarian and ethnic violence becomes the rule rather than the exception, the excuses of Al-Sharaa and his apologists in Turkey and among some Washington think tanks wear thin. U.S. Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack has embraced a vision of strong, centralized leadership across the Middle East, one in which strongmen guarantee security and investors can grow economies. It is a naïve read of the Middle East for two reasons: First, it discounts ideology. As an investor and a real estate developer, business deals and making money may motivate Barrack, but projecting this onto Islamists is naïve. Men like Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may embezzle billions of dollars, and Al-Sharaa, by putting his brother in charge of investments and Syrian contracts, may also aspire to, but their goals for government and society are less material.
These Islamic strongmen like money, of course, just as Trump and Barrack do, but they are also warriors for Islam. They know, as Muhammad said, that “Islam is to dominate and not to be dominated.” Barrack fails to appreciate the effect of their faith on the Muslims with whom he hopes to strike a deal, Muslims such as Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Trump, unfortunately, remains much impressed with al-Sharaa, whom he called after first meeting him in Washington a “great man,” a “fighter,” a “very strong leader ” and said “I think this leader can do it.” He hasn’t changed his mind. Just a few days ago, after Al-Sharaa had launched his offensive against the Kurdish-run SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), instead of telling al-Sharaa to call off his attack on the Syrian Kurds who had been our closest ally in fighting ISIS, Trump said this: “I had a great conversation with the highly respected president of Syria, and all of the things having to do with Syria and that area. It’s working out very well, so we’re very happy about it.”
With that kind of response after al-Sharaa’s attack on the Kurds, how can anyone hope to change the president’s mind, and persuade him to impose no-fly and no-drive zones in order to defend the minorities in Syria against an aggressive central government in Damascus run by a smooth-talking jihadist?
Troybeam says
No we don’t, need to stop this and start dealing with the issues in America.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Agree w/ you. I don’t like Trump warming up to this HTS regime in Syria, although I recognize that he was doing MbS a favor. That said, we’re not the world’s cops, and aren’t morally obligated to intervene everywhere in the world where there’s a genocide. Much as I sympathize w/ the Kurds and Druze
I’d even have said the same about the Iranians, had the president not stepped on it by threatening Iran w/ consequences if a massacre happened
Rob Porter says
࿗Infidel࿘v, increasingly I consider Americans like you a gutless lot. You don’t want the U.S. to be involved in discouraging genocide and are okay with Trump doing nothing about an al-Qaeda/ISIS leader’s Muslims committing mass murders in Syria.
Let me tell you, al-Sharaa cheered as the Twin Towers came crashing down, killing more than 2,700 people. I guess you are also okay withe gutless, fat-arse Trump – who I once liked and welcomed back into the presidency – betraying the Iranian people with his promise of “help is coming” and then let them get killed without any response from him. He’s a spineless rich guy, his Witkoff, Kushner and Barrack liars and morons a threat to Israel. In respect of Israel he’s as useless as a hind tit on a bull, just an extention of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, with Clinton barely much better. Just wait till the Muslims your country has let in begin killing Americans. Will you kick them out? Of course not, it would be racist and Islamophobic! .
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Rob
I don’t like Trump normalizing relations w/ Syria. This happens to be one thing that Tucker Carlson used to be right about: pointing out how the Assad regime used to protect Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in Syria, but how this successor regime is the one that finally got sanctions lifted. I do see why he did it, though – to make MbS happy, and to repair the damaged relations w/ Saudi Arabia. Yeah, I know how al Shara’a was a part of al Qaeda back at that time, and do have issues w/ US pretending that everything is hunky dory w/ Syria
As far as discouraging genocide goes, we tried that from 2001 to 2021 in both Iraq and Afghanistan, spending trillions of $$$. So American patience for that sort of intervention is burnt out. We can’t police the entire world, and there are genocides in a lot of countries – South Africa, Bangladesh, Sudan,… There is also the sovereignty issue at play: when we start doing such interference, we also give other countries the license to start interfering in what we do. For instance, ICE is busy rounding up and deporting illegal aliens in the US. Democrats call it genocide, and other countries then feel free to back up their rhetoric and condemn the US for that as well, establishing a tenuous moral equivalence. As far as both Israel and Iran go, you must not have read me, since I comment on almost every thread, about how we’re doing things wrong.
On Israel, I’m on record as stating that we should give Israel a carte blanche, allow them to annex Judea and Samaria and recognize such an annexation, and allow them to do whatever they like to Hamas, Hizbullah, Fatah and all other Palestinian groups. As well as help the Iranians topple the islamic regime. Oh, and I have had nothing but contempt for Witkoff, and disdain for Kushner
On Iran, I’ve been furious at the Trump administration for first promising support to the Iranians, and then letting them down. I even noted yesterday that say what you will about Obama or Biden, they at least didn’t give Iranians any false hopes that we’d do anything, so the only Iranians who protested their regimes and probably got imprisoned or killed for it were those who ignored that signal. Had Trump never said anything about Iran, I wouldn’t have dinged him: there is a strong sentiment in the US to not interfere in other countries but to straighten things out at home, so I’d respect a decision to stay out of it. But Trump did bloviate against Iran, threatening them if the killings continue, and the killings continued. Which is why I have been ranting and raving against him almost daily, since that has cost north of 36,000 innocent Iranian lives
As far as muslims in our country go, we’re slowly (slower than I’d like) getting them out. Already, 75 countries have had their immigration visa processes suspended, and iirc, some 40 of those countries are muslim. Then there has been deportation campaigns in Minneapolis – what do you thing the riots there are about? In Congress, Rep Brandon Gill has introduced a bill seeking a 25 year moratorium on immigration from Somalia. Right now, just scanning Leftist boards, they’re talking about US becoming less attractive for foreign visitors, and that particularly includes muslims. Since muslims have plenty of target rich environments in Europe – 🇫🇷🇧🇪🇩🇪🇸🇪🇱🇺🇬🇧, why would they bother coming to the US?
somehistory says
some people want America to police the world, and others don’t want police in America.
Jesus foretold that just before He returns, the world would be in turmoil, “not knowing the way out.”
OLD GUY says
It is confusing listening to the left.
somehistory says
Yes, Old Guy, and they are very confused.
Rob Porter says
somehistory, well said. Wisdom has departed a world that has turned its back on God and His laws.
When the President assures the Iranians that ‘help is coming’ and then fails to deliver, that is betrayal. Many Iranians now regard Trump a gutless fraud and lower then shark dung on the bottom of the ocean. The mullahs now know he is weak and will leave them in power. One of these days they, thanks to Trump, will almost certainly wipe out Washington with a nuclear warhead. Israel and Netanyahu now know that windbag Trump cannot be trusted and quietly are making their own plans. He’s already emptily boasting that the next to useless U.S. 2-day attack on Iran’s nuclear sites “left it (Iran) a mess>”. This is such empty nonsense and a lie that it is unbelievable. Israel must be contemptuous after its 10-day attack, but even this was restricted by buffoon Donald.
somehistory says
Thank you, Rob.
Yes, wisdom is the correct application of Knowledge and understanding If one rejects knowledge, they can have neither understanding nor wisdom.
Rob Porter says
somehistory, well said. Having turned their back on God and His wisdom, wisdom has departed this world. For 20 years in England, William Wilberforce fought to bring an end to slavery in the Western world. (It never stopped in the uncivilized Muslim world). Yet Trump does possess enough principle and conviction to end savage Muslim rule in Iran. He’s probably getting instructions from Qatar.
gravenimage says
+1
John says
They should have collected the Dead or Alive price on Ahmed al-Sharaa head, and put him in front a firing squad for his crimes against humanity – murder.
Stacy Stegner says
Anyone remember Yassar Arrafat and the PLO?
Same thing. But out of it came the Camp David peace accords.
I doubt if Trump trusts them. But he always offers the olive branch of peace before he uses the club of war.
Also, who will pay for this? Who will enforce it? Some people have tunnel vision. They have an objective and become blind to other factors. All they see is their end goal. Everything else falls to the way side.
America needs to stop being used as the world police. It doesn’t help America. It helps the globalists. They sit back and get rich and their faces and names are unknown… And the rest of the world blamed America for being a bully forcing it’s rule on others.
Rob Porter says
Trump offered help to Iranians, They did not ask help from him. And then Trump betrayed the Iranians when failing to send help – after encouraging the to go out and risk their lives. That was SHAMEFUL, so don’t waste your effort excusing his disgusting betrayal,. He’s barely any better than the disgusting Muslim president, Barack Obama and ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
If the Iranians didn’t ask him for any help, why would they be paying any attention to him at all? Truth is that courageous as they have been, they’ve been outgunned. I do condemn Trump for making that first statement about “help being on the way”, and then taking his time. But if your statement above is true, then the Iranians should have, as one poster suggested yesterday, grabbed weapons of the IRGC and caused a carnage in every city that had an IRGC base. That regime would have fallen like Assad’s did more than a year ago
Stacy Stegner says
Druze. Never forget they attacked us in Beirut.
Kurds? They were allies of the “Young Turks” in Turkey who helped the Muslims commit the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek genocides.
People over there switch sides as often as we change our underwear.
Today’s friend will be tomorrow’s enemy and vice versa. It is how it has been over there for thousands of years.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Lebanese Druze were a part of the coalition that opposed Israel in 1982. But their politics has always been that of survival, and they’ve always rallied behind whoever either supports them, or at least doesn’t massacre them. So while the ones in Syria were fine under Assad, they’re now at the receiving end of the HTS regime, and are supportive of Israel. Then they have their comrades in Israel, who have adjusted well to becoming citizens of Israel
The Kurds – they’re a mixed bag. On one hand, those in both Syria and Iraq have been supportive of the US, and I’m pretty sure the Turkish ones would be as well, if we weren’t “allies” w/ Turkey. Otoh, they too are not only muslims, but also have the tendency of bullying non-muslim minorities. On top of that, the Kurds who have managed to migrate to Europe have behaved exactly like other muslims, in terms of raping non-muslim locals. That said, they are a good counterfoil against ISIS, the Turks and the HTS regime in Damascus