Syrian rebels embrace Islamist Syria
The Washington Times reports that a bloc of Syrian rebel groups took to the airways and embraced the idea of an Islamic government to replace the largely secular government of Bashar al-Assad that they are fighting;
“From an international perspective, the argument that we want to fund a moderate opposition has just been blown full of holes,” said Valerie Szybala, a Syria analyst at the Institute for the Study of War
[…]
The new rebel bloc includes some powerful factions of the Free Syrian Army, which is likely to undermine the case to arm and fund the moderate opposition. Obama administration officials said this month that U.S. arms had begun flowing to the Free Syrian Army.
The Obama administration was caught off guard by the announcement, and a U.S. official told The Associated Press that it is too early to determine what the impact will be. Another U.S. official said the U.S. and its allies are increasingly concerned about infighting between the Free Syrian Army and al Qaeda militants in northern and eastern Syria.
Yeah, well, this isn’t my shocked face. But, let’s still arm them and then make airstrikes on the Assad regime’s forces to weaken them. We farted around just long enough to give the Islamists a foot hold. The fact that the Obama Administration was caught flat-footed on this announcement should give everyone pause. I don’t think that there’s a member of this forum who didn’t see this coming.
Category: Terror War
“The outcome”? Doesn’t anybody see that the Jihadists are doing exactly what the Axis powers did before WWII? They’ll attempt to take down the rest of the world, and then they’ll come after us. We’ve got another world war on the way.
No major surprise here either, Jonn. I’ve been saying for quite a while that al Qaeda had its claws deep into the Syrian opposition, and had control over big pieces of same.
However, I’m mildly surprised they were this blatant and open about their intent, given the fact that Western assistance could help their cause in the short term.
“The Obama administration was caught off guard by the announcement”. That pretty much sums up the last 4+ years.
This is a mess.
My apologies for repeating myself, but “amateur hour” in D.C. continues.
It’ll get worse before it gets any better, but all of you know that already.
They seem to be bragging about their inability to protect this country. Or maybe it’s just bragging about their version of “success” – diminishing our strength, and the world wide perception of our strength, in one more way.
@2–AlQ can afford to be open and up front about their intent, because this administration is going to support them anyway.
I have to give this administration credit for pulling off the hat trick: Egypt, Libya, Syria.
Every day I lose more and more hope that we will survive this administration.
I think you forgot Tunisia, Gina – though that one hasn’t gone to crap as badly as Libya and Egypt. Syria would make a quad.
did NOT see that coming. *rolls eyes
I’ll just leave this here.
Syria will be in chaos for a decade or more until a new strongman takes over. Even if Assad survives this round he will never have enough power to completely wipe out this insurrection. The foreign Jihadis will keep sniping at his regime forever, unless he gets outside help in the form of a real army. Perhaps Russia will send advisers to augment his forces. One thing is for sure, a lot more people are going to die before this is over. And a lot more will die once the country is pacified. No matter who wins a lot of the losers will be killed to settle the old scores so often at the root of these conflicts. Our best option is to dump the problem on the UN and sit back while they dither on until the last Syrian is killed.