Do You Know What The U.S. Government Is Up To In Syria?
Mark Ward is the U.S. State Department's senior adviser on assistance to Syria, and when he heard the Syrian border town of Azaz was overrun by an offshoot of al-Qaida in September, he knew it was time to get creative again.
"You always have to have a plan B in this kind of work," he says.
Ward is based in Turkey. His job is to oversee a growing and unusual U.S. humanitarian assistance program in rebel-held areas in seven provinces across northern Syria.
U.S. policy toward Syria was front-page news when President Obama talked about a possible missile strike, and there's been an ongoing debate about U.S. assistance to the rebels attempting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.
But the main U.S. effort, which has received much less attention, is the more than $1.5 billion that the U.S. has provided for humanitarian aid and social programs since the Syrian uprising began in the spring of 2011.
By comparison, the U.S. has spent $26 million on nonlethal aid to the rebels, though the U.S. is now undertaking a program to provide arms as well.
Ward faced a new and daunting challenge when a radical Islamist rebel group ousted another rebel faction in Azaz, less than five miles from the Turkish border. Turkey then closed the nearby border crossing, shutting down a crucial highway to Syria.
"It has definitely slowed down assistance, but it hasn't stopped it," says Ward, a Foreign Service veteran. "There are other ways into Syria, but it takes longer."
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