| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Obama steps up military aid to Syrian rebels |
| 2013-06-14 |
| President Barack Obama's decision to authorize lethal aid to Syrian rebels marks a deepening of U.S. involvement in the two-year civil war. But U.S. officials are still grappling with what type and how much weaponry to send the opposition forces and how to ensure it stays out of the hands of extremists battling for control of Syria. U.S. officials confirmed Obama's authorization Thursday after the White House announced it had conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons against opposition forces. Obama has said the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line," suggesting greater American intervention. While a small percentage of the 93,000 people reportedly killed in Syria are said to have died from chemical weapons -- U.S. intelligence puts the number at 100 to 150 -- the White House views the deployment of the deadly agents as a flouting of international norms. Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the multiple chemical weapons attacks gave greater urgency to the situation. "Suffice it to say this is going to be different in both scope and scale in terms of what we are providing," Rhodes said of the ramped-up U.S. response. But he added the U.S. would make specific determinations "on our own timeline." The Obama administration could give the rebels a range of weapons, including small arms, assault rifles, shoulder-fired remote-propelled grenades and other anti-tank missiles. The opposition forces could operate most of that equipment without significant training. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #26 And then there is the issue of Russia, which has demonstrated active interest in their client's continuing welfare... |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-06-14 22:57 |
| #25 The more accurate question is "which does less harm to U.S. interests". |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-06-14 22:37 |
| #24 Not Assad. IMHO. |
| Posted by: rammer 2013-06-14 21:54 |
| #23 Which better serves US interests: Assad in control, or Al Qaeda? |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2013-06-14 21:44 |
| #22 We should send these rebels the stuff they need to win. It is important to set in stone that any wanky dictator who does what the President of the the United States says he shouldn't will not succeed and probably not survive. To that end, what do they need? * Ability to deny the Syrian Government the use of the airspace. * Ability to kill or disable Syrian Army soldiers and systems. * Ability to feed and care for the rebel forces and civilians who support them. How to do these things? * Provide radars and communications devices to the rebels that allow them to communicate with U.S. and Turkish aircraft, which are empowered to shoot down any detected regime aircraft. * Provide the rebels with AT-4s or Carl Gustov type weapons, as well as massive amounts of ak's and ammo. * Provide via neighboring countries or airdrops massive amounts of MREs, medical supplies, and cell phone mobile towers. None of these would endanger our allies. All of them would support the forces resisting the WMD using regime. |
| Posted by: rammer 2013-06-14 20:24 |
| #21 No no, CrazyFool: "The Obama administration has said it wants to support only those insurgent groups that are not terrorist organizations." See? I'm sure it'll be fine. They'll just use the same magical device TSA and ICE use to tell the difference. |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2013-06-14 18:01 |
| #20 Of course this will include a massive supply shipment of 7.62, 5.56, .45, .40, 9, and .22LR as well as all in-stock and off the line AR platform rifles. Good citizens will turn in their AR rifles plus any other donations will be accepted. Your file will be noted with good remarks. Don't like that? Then we will also send 15% of our grain storage via Egypt as well as tank and aviation fuel, trucks, baby formula, and kitten food. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-06-14 17:24 |
| #19 little late for that |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-06-14 14:36 |
| #18 " ....and this is in our National interest how...?" To not look feckless? |
| Posted by: Newc 2013-06-14 14:19 |
| #17 ....dog, meet wag.... |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2013-06-14 13:34 |
| #16 In other news: Town of West, TX told to suck it up by FEMA overlords. Disaster relief now essentially..."needs based". I recommend Rick Perry hold a press conference, hand a check to the US Treasury for the FEMA dollars already sent, and tell them to stick it up their arss. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-06-14 13:26 |
| #15 Silly Uncle! When has Bumbles ever did anything in our National interest? He's doing it for his own gain of course! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-06-14 13:12 |
| #14 ....and this is in our National interest how...? |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2013-06-14 13:11 |
| #13 So now Obama is giving aid directly to an Al-Qaeda organization - which is a terrorist organization. Isn't that against the law? Giving aid to the enemy? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-06-14 13:01 |
| #12 Don't you know that Obama got a campaign contribution from the popcorn lobby? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-06-14 11:40 |
| #11 C'mon, you guys. The rebels have been on the ropes lately. We need to restore some balance to keep this war going and keep these people killing each other. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-06-14 11:21 |
| #10 this will play out over months and years there will be a temptation to establish no fly zones fairly soon but of course what happens if armed groups go into the zones and gun down people without air support? we all hope the US has weapons that have 'remote shut off' that can be 'loaned' to non Jihadi (or maybe 'less jihadi' groups but I've never been able to confirm we have such |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-06-14 09:50 |
| #9 Here we go with "Wag the Dog". |
| Posted by: OCCD 2013-06-14 09:46 |
| #8 So McCain finally gets his war |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-06-14 09:25 |
| #7 Damascus will fall to evil, maybe not in this particular fight between rabid dogs, but some day it will fall. And when it does, the Hussein supported brotherhood will have encircled Israel and will begin its assault from all direction. Israel will turn Damascus into a sheet of glass with a Nuke. |
| Posted by: Winky Sproing5899 2013-06-14 09:04 |
| #6 Since they're loosing now, it's a good thing. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-06-14 08:22 |
| #5 The first rung up the ladder of escalation. Half measure after half measure. LBJ II. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2013-06-14 08:18 |
| #4 And now, at last, the true hypocrisy is exposed for all to see. "Bush lied about WMD!" "Bush lied, people died!" Pffft. The Lightbringer, the agent of "hope and change", the secular messiah who supposedly embodied all faux-righteous outrage that the people shouting and believing those ridiculous slogans felt themselves, has gone to war with the reasoning that Iraqui WMDs moved to the Bekka Valley on the eve of the war have been used by the Assad government. You know, the WMDs that never, ever existed. Why hasn't every center/right pundit, blogger, and newsperson been hammering this from the moment the story about Syrian rebel assistance came out? Well if they won't, I will. Listen up, all you NPR-listening self-righteous phonies and pseudointellectuals . . .the WMDs WERE there, and your messiah-hero president, by giving assistance to the rebels, has admitted as much. Will the lefty phony ever admit that she and her fellow travellers were wrong? I doubt it. But she and the rest of her friends need to have it repeated to them over and over and over. Your wonder boy hero has just done something which proves the WMD objection to the war in Iraq was incorrect. Resolve that cognitive dissonance, if you have the brains, logic skills, honor, and maturity to do so. Recent history suggests that you do not. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2013-06-14 06:23 |
| #3 More from the Mail. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-06-14 05:55 |
| #2 funding jihadis is not a good idea |
| Posted by: Paul D 2013-06-14 05:23 |
| #1 These are the fellows our Champ wishes to assist ? BEIRUT — A Syrian rebel group's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well. Lebanese Sheik Omar Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time. "They provided them early on with technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria," Bakri says. "There will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-06-14 05:18 |