Posted on 08/09/2014 6:25:42 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Wikipedia is not a primary source. And the footnotes link to liberal media sources who are very bad at getting facts straight.
Just one of many references. There has been much discusion on FR about arming the rebels in Syria including running weapons from Benghazi through Turkey to the Islamists: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-armed-syrian-rebel-group-seeks-all-syrian-land-occupied-by-israel/
Anther citation describing the current request for an expanded program plus a reference to the current program:http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-backs-us-military-training-for-syrian-rebels/2014/06/26/ead59104-fd62-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html
So “Syrian Opposition Fighters” = the Islam State?
That is ridiculously superfluous.
We’ve been arming and training secular Syrian opposition groups for years. This does not equate to “arming ISIS” which is an Islamist extremist organization. We have never supported Syrian Islamic groups.
Here is a partial list of non-Islamic, secular Syrian opposition groups:
-The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces is a coalition of opposition groups and individuals, mostly exil, who support the Syrian revolution side and are against the Assad government ruling Syria. It formed on 11 November 2012 at a conference of opposition groups and individuals held in Doha, Qatar. It includes organizations such as the Syrian National Council, the previous iteration of an exilic political body attempting to represent the grassroots movement.
-Coalition of Secular and Democratic Syrians: nucleus of a Syrian secular and democratic opposition that appeared during the Syrian civil war. It came about through the union of a dozen Muslim and Christian, Arab and Kurd parties, who called the minorities of Syria to support the fight against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The Coalition has also called for military intervention in Syria, under the form of a no-fly zone similar to that of Kosovo, with a safe zone and cities. The president of the coalition, who is also a member of the SNC, is Randa Kassis.
-Damascus Declaration: Opposition bloc from 2005. Twelve members were sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2008. Syrian journalist and activist Michel Kilo launched the declaration, after the Syrian writer and thinker Abdulrazak Eid had written its first draft. Riad Seif, another democracy activist, became the first signatory. The “five small opposition groups” signing the declaration were the Arab nationalist National Democratic Rally
-The Kurdish Democratic Alliance
-The Committees of Civil Society
-The Kurdish Democratic Front
-The Movement of the Future.
-The Movement for Justice and Development in Syria (MJD) also subscribes to the Damascus Declaration.In a series of splits 2007-2009, most members left the Damascus Declaration, leaving the MJD and SDPP (see below) as the only remaining factions of any consequence, along with a number of independents.
-Syrian Democratic People’s Party: A socialist party which played a “key role” in the creation of the SNC. The party’s leader George Sabra (a secularist born to a Christian family) is the official spokesman of the SNC, and also ran for chairman.
-Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution: Syrian opposition group supporting the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government. It grants local opposition groups representation in its national organization.
-Assyrian Democratic Organization: A party representing Assyrians in Syria and long repressed by the Assad government, it has been a participant in opposition structures since the beginning of the conflict. Abdul-Ahad Astepho is a member of the SNC.
-Syrian Turkmen Assembly: A recently formed assembly of Syrian Turkmens which constitutes a coalition of Turkmen parties and groups in Syria. It is against the partition of Syria after the collapse of Baath government. The common decision of Syrian Turkmen Assembly is: “Regardless of any ethnic or religious identity, a future in which everybody can be able to live commonly under the identity of Syrian is targeted in the future of Syria.”
-Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement: An opposition party of Syrian Turkmens, which was constituted in Istanbul on 21 March 2012. The leader of Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement is Ziyad Hasan.
-Syrian Turkmen National Bloc: An opposition party of Syrian Turkmens, which was founded in February 2012. The chairman of the political party is Yusuf Molla.
-Local Coordination Committees of Syria: Network of local protest groups that organize and report on protests as part of the Syrian civil war, founded in 2011. As of August 2011, the network supported civil disobedience and opposed local armed resistance and international military intervention as methods of opposing the Syrian government. Key people are activists Razan Zaitouneh and Suhair al-Atassi.
-Free Syrian Army & Higher Military Council: Paramilitary that has been active during the Syrian civil war. Composed mainly of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel,its formation was announced on 29 July 2011 in a video released on the Internet by a uniformed group of deserters from the Syrian military who called upon members of the Syrian army to defect and join them. The leader of the group, who identified himself as Colonel Riad al-Asaad, announced that the Free Syrian Army would work with demonstrators to bring down the system, and declared that all security forces attacking civilians are justified targets. It has also been reported that many former Syrian Consulates are trying to band together a Free Syrian Navy from fishermen and defectors to secure the coast.
-Liwaa al-Umma: a paramilitary group initially fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war. The group was previously led by Mahdi Al-Harati, an Irish-Libyan who led Libyan rebel Tripoli Brigade during the Battle of Tripoli. In September 2012 it came under command of the Free Syrian Army.
-Syrian Turkmen Brigades: An armed opposition structure of Syrian Turkmens fighting against Syrian Armed Forces. It is also the military wing of Syrian Turkmen Assembly. It is led by Colonel Muhammad Awad and Ali Basher.”
But to many people this is all too much to comprehend or even appreciate. Arming a few moderate groups = “arming ISIS”. Because moderates, secularists or extremists -it doesn’t matter. They’re all alike, right?
Should we not be assisting the Kurds too because that would hailed as “arming ISIS?
When Bret asked him, "Have you asked for weapons, and received any from the US"
His answer was up until a few hour ago when I last checked we have not received any of the weapons we requested, we have not even received any from the our own government.
He told Bret they are using old Russian weapons.
Asked by Bret if they want boots on the ground, the representative told Bret, "There are boots on the ground, Kurdish boots, give us the weapons and WE will destroy ISI.
The Kurds are a worthy ally and deserve our help.
Thanks for your opinion, Senator McCain. The evidence says otherwise.
That is, apart from the Kurds who are a blatant target of what is now known in the press as “IS”.
What evidence says otherwise? The only thing I’ve seen is a blog about an interview with a supposed Jihadi who claims the CIA backs IS in support of an Israeli plot to have Saudi Arabia fight Iran for “100 years”.
Laughable. But this is how many Arabs rationalize intra-Muslim warfare. It’s ‘The CIA supporting the Zionists’.
The wiki articles on Syrian opposition forces and who we support have numerous citations.
You have no evidence. Just a lousy conspiracy theory saying “the government did it all”.
You probably want no one to help the Kurds or Iraqis or the Anbar Ba’athists because that would be supporting another “CIA Zionist plot”.
People like you won’t rest until the whole world is living under tyranny, no matter what its stripe.
You calling liberal media citations “evidence” is what is specious.
Ba’athists are National Socialists. You do not help such people.
This won’t settle the argument, but tracking the weapons is useful: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/08/US-Backed-Moderate-Free-Syrian-Army-Factions-Join-Islamic-State-Terror-Group
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