Govt May Be on Board, But Locals Fear Getting Sucked into War

Jordan’s government has not only acquiesced to growing US deployments into their country, but in many ways has eagerly facilitated it at the expense of growing tensions with neighboring Syria. The average Jordanian citizen, however, feels very different about this.

Protests against US deployments are just the beginning, and many locals fear that with the US seemingly on the cusp of intervening directly in Syria, the deployments are going to quickly suck Jordan into the war as well.

Jordan’s government has been quick to downplay the concerns, with Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur insisting that “recent media reports” of US training Syrian rebels on Jordanian soil were untrue.

Nsur’s statements are a flat out lie, however, as the training has been a confirmed fact for several months. The US hasn’t even being trying to keep it a secret, and Jordanian officials have also admitted to the training program several times in the past.