“Scorecard, Scorecard, You Can’t Tell al-Queda Without a Scorecard.”

When I was a child attending Cleveland Indian baseball games at the old Municipal Stadium a thin man in an Indians’ baseball cap ran up and down the aisles hawking scorecards and calling out, “Scorecard, scorecard, you can’t tell the players without a scorecard.”

He was right. The scorecards would give you the player’s name, number, and position. Then you would open to a page where you could engage in the fine art of keeping score, tracking the runs, hits and errors, through esoteric notations on the scorecard.

Baseball has changed over time. Designated hitters changed the game’s strategy; limits on visits to the mound and the pitch clocks sped up play. Scorecards are now digital. And the Cleveland Indians changed their name to the Guardians.

Which brings me to Syria.

The topic of Syria seems to have the full attention of the Senate Intelligence committee when it comes to reviewing the deposed Assad Regime, but lacks an understanding of the role that the CIA has played in putting al-Queda, or whatever you want to call it, in the driver’s seat in Damascus.

Yes, you read that right, U.S. tax dollars, errantly or not, poured into the hands of jihadists, al-Queda consorts, motley adventurers and soldiers of fortune, with the end of ousting Assad.

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Senator Rand Paul brought this to the attention of Congress through the introduction of the ‘Stop Arming Terrorists Act.’ Unfortunately, the bill went nowhere and the U.S. kept arming terrorists.

Of course, the U.S. was by no means the only nation state playing in Syria, which became a staging area for Great Power competition. Russia and Iran tried to bolster Syria while Turkey provided support to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The deadly and deceptive machinations of state under the guise of “freeing the world from the threat of al Queda,” are not to excuse any of the glaring shortcomings or terrible abuses of the Syrian regime.

But when al-Queda, their heirs and assigns, somehow made the surrealistic journey from crashing planes into buildings at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania -- to being ushered into power with the help of the bungled regime-change-conniving of a U.S. intelligence agency, it should be time out on the field.

I don’t think any American who was above the age of six on September 11, 2001 can ever forget what happened on that day, and who was responsible. I certainly have not forgotten.

As a member of Congress for 16 years, I kept track of the runs, hits and errors in the Middle East, to warn about the consequences of U.S. policy in the region, so here is a scorecard on Syria, which my readers can digitize and forward it to their Member of Congress:

The new self-declared leader of Syria was born Ahmad Joulani. As a member of al Queda in Iraq, working under al-Zarqawi, his name was Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a name he kept, while al-Queda in Iraq (a branch of the original al-Queda, founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988) shape-shifted into the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and then into ISIS, the Islamic State.

As al-Queda in Iraq expanded in 2011, Jolani, received Al-Queda’s Syrian franchise, and renamed it Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front). In 2016 news reports allege that Jolani split from al-Queda. The move was more like a stock split than a break. Jolani rebranded his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took over Syria, and even rebranded himself as Ahmed al-Sharaa.

In summary, Al-Queda has permutated and morphed like a rotisserie baseball league of jihadis, into al-Queda in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq (IS), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), (which originated as Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, (ISIS), (Arabic acronym "Daesh") then Jabhat al-Nusra, and now is known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Jolani, has transitioned from Ahmad Joulani, to jihadist Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, and is now Ahmed al-Sharaa, the President of Syria.

You cannot tell these players without a scorecard.

The CIA -- is still the CIA. It scored big in Syria. After President Obama signed the presidential finding in 2011, instructing the agency to execute regime change in Syria, and spending billions of U.S. tax dollars over thirteen years, the Agency managed to destroy the Syrian State, remove Bashar al-Assad and install a plantation of terrorism in the heart of the Levant.

The Agency financed much of the jihadi activity in Syria, through Operation Timber Sycamore, an ambitious name, since some Sycamore trees are said to live over 500 years. This particular Sycamore was felled by President Trump in 2017, a short time after he first took office.

The bad news is that, like al-Queda arising from U.S. taxpayers’ support of Islamist fighters against the Soviets, and like the Taliban arising from the mujahideen, the blow back from the U.S.’ Middle East enterprise in Syria is also likely to end in a murderous game of consequence.

When it does, the names will change, to protect the guilty.

Will the game change?

Keep this scorecard for reference and decide for yourself.