The Pentagon often gets a bad rap, but it’s been a voice of reason during Obama’s era of foreign policy irresponsibility. It went head to head with Hillary Clinton over the push to invade Libya to the point of usurping the State Department by trying to work out an agreement with Gaddafi. While the CIA continues running guns to any Jihadist with a Qatari connection and a pulse, the Pentagon has shown some common sense.

Now two foreign policies are colliding once again on the battlefield.

The fighting has intensified over the past two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other as they have maneuvered through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.

In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.