“He said the United States has no idea which Syrian opposition groups are “credible” and whether they’d remain loyal to the United States.”
That is the whole thing in a nutshell. We here on FR have been saying that all along.
“ .....which Syrian opposition groups are “credible” and whether they’d remain loyal to the United States.”
I wouldn’t trust any of them to be loyal to the USA.
Press Release
Jordan statement on vote against President Obama’s plan to combat ISIS
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Urbana) made the following comments about his vote against President Barack Obama’s proposed plan to combat the Islamic terrorist organization ISIS:
“I agree with the majority of Americans that ISIS is a real threat to the United States, our allies, and our interests both here at home and abroad. Through its public beheadings and other atrocities, ISIS has shown that it is an enemy determined to stop at nothing to achieve its barbaric aims.
“For America and her allies to truly be safe from this threat, ISIS must be completely destroyed. For that reason, I cannot support the weak plan outlined by the president. It forfeits the leadership role the United States must play in order to bring about an end to this brutality.
“I was glad to see the president, in his speech to the nation last week, change his rhetoric from dismissing ISIS as a ‘J.V. team’ to recognizing it for what it is: the most violent Islamic terrorist group in the world today. His proposed strategy to counter ISIS, though, is more of the same lead-from-behind proposals that have come to define his presidency.
“Any strategy that relies on training and arming ‘appropriately vetted’ Syrian opposition groups suggests that such groups are willing and able to conduct a ground fight against ISIS. In reality, we have no idea which groups are credible and whether they would remain loyal to us amid the ever-changing alliances of the Middle East. There are already reports that some ‘appropriately vetted’ groups are seeking non-aggression deals with ISIS.
“Ultimately, we cannot control what happens to the people we would train or the weapons we would provide them, which could easily find their way to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups to be used against our interests in the region.
“If the president wants to be serious about confronting ISIS, he should come to Congress and work with us to pass an authorization that clearly defines our mission based on our security needs, not on the sectarian needs of others.”
http://jordan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=393921