Drawing on leaked emails and documents released by intelligence services, Lüders shows how and why the US and their allies have sent weapons to Jihadists ever since the beginning of the revolt, and on a massive scale. In doing so, they exacerbated the violence in Syria, which escalated into a proxy war between the US and Russia. In this compelling book, Lüders convincingly shows that Washington has been waiting for an opportunity to topple the Assad regime. He also looks at earlier, failed attempts at regime change in Syria in the 1940s and 1950s, and explains why Damascus turned towards the Soviet Union. We are currently witnessing the backlash of these politics of regime change, especially in Europe: the refugee crisis and the heightened danger of terrorism are the direct result of US interventionist policies elsewhere.