How the US fragmented Syria’s rebels

American failure to take early, decisive action to prevent a power vacuum in Syria was a significant factor in the rise of ISIS. Such action could have been taken far earlier.

One of the main sources of U.S. reluctance to do so has been the fragmentation and radicalization of the armed Syrian opposition.

But this concern over acting in Syria mistakenly identifies the character of the opposition as the source of that fragmentation and radicalization.