Posted on 11/02/2014 7:13:46 AM PST by Lorianne
The Obama administration's plan to raise a 15,000-strong rebel army in Syria has run into steep political and military obstacles, raising doubts about a key element of the White House strategy for defeating Islamic State militants in the midst of a civil war..
Pentagon concerns have grown so sharp that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel sent a two-page memo to the White House last week warning that the overall plan could collapse because U.S. intentions toward Syrian President Bashar Assad are unclear, according to a senior defense official who read the memo but was not authorized to speak publicly.
At a news conference Thursday, Hagel declined to discuss his memo to national security advisor Susan Rice, but he acknowledged that Assad has inadvertently benefited from more than five weeks of U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State, one of the most powerful antigovernment forces in Syria's bitter conflict
Senior U.S. military officers also privately warn that the so-called Syrian moderates that U.S. planners hope to recruit — opposition fighters without ties to the Islamic radicals — have been degraded by other factions and forces, including Assad's army, during the war.
But Pentagon unease has intensified in recent weeks as Jordan and Turkey, two allies that the Obama administration is counting on to help train the proposed proxy force, made it clear that they are lukewarm to the plan, two U.S. officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I can't imagine.
US anti ISIS has only one hurdle and that is the President of the United States himself.
Turkey either does what we tell them to do or we bypass them.
That’s because it was PR campaign and NOT a “strategy”.
Good point.
But it’s still a huge strategic mistake to even suggest such a thing, even as a PR campaign or as a joke even.
Kerry, Susan Rice et al are a joke
Exactly.
What a mess.
Hilary must have seen this coming and got out while the getting was good.
That and huma servicing.
Didn’t we just impose Sanction against Russia for doing the same thing? What gives us the right to do this and the right to condemn other for doing it? I don’t care doe Assad, but he isn’t our business. What or how he fights ISIS or insurgents is his business. What if France was arming an insurgent group in California or Texas to overthrow Obama? Think about that for a minute. Because if we continue on this path, that’s what we deserve.
WHAT STRATEGY???
Yeah, all that.
Plus, what the hell is the objective? Are we really so daft that we really think we’re going to bring peace to the middle east and get them to stop slaughtering each other? Really?
Endless wars, Arms deals, positive cash flow, world dominance. It has nothing to do with “peoples rights”. It’s all a game. And thousands if not perhaps millions will die for the ability of a few corporations to get rich and a few politicians to get re-elected. They treat it like a game. And the prize is the amount of people they can kill outside their own borders and beat their chests and show how patriotic they are. And they lever behind death, destruction, broken lives, broken families, and ruined nations
Ttraining and arming a “moderate” rebel group for any reason is simply rendering aid in training and manpower to ISIS and is the transparent intention of the Sultan in Washington. ISIS will not even “infiltrate” such a group. All of the enlistees will be ISIS from the getgo. They won’t announce their allegiance until they have reached a certain threshold of weaponry and training.
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