Posted on 09/19/2014 11:05:11 AM PDT by jazusamo
The Free Syrian Army is on the wrong side. Here's its bloody track record and disturbing alliances.
Video House approves Obama's plan to combat Islamic State in a 273 to 156 vote
Demonstrating yet again that we do not have an effective opposition party in the United States right now, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama’s plan to arm and train “vetted” members of the Free Syrian Army. As expected,the Senate went along on Thursday. The Hill noted about the House vote that “vocal opposition” came from “both war-weary liberals and defense hawks who feel the Syria plan should include more robust steps.” No one, however, seems to have mentioned the main reason why this is a bad idea: the Free Syrian Army is on the wrong side.
Obama made big promises last Sunday on Meet the Press: “What I want people to understand is that over the course of months,” he asserted, “we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum” of the Islamic State. “We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities; we’re going to shrink the territory that they control; and, ultimately, we’re going to defeat them.” He was using the term “we” loosely: “This is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops. This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.” But if American troops were not going to perform this herculean task, then who would do it?
“In the interview on Sunday,” said the New York Times , “Mr. Obama said he envisioned the Free Syrian Army’s providing the ground presence needed to confront ISIS in Syria.”
But will the Free Syrian Army actually do this job, or do it effectively? Here are some reasons why not:
In July 2013, Free Syrian Army fighters entered the Christian village of Oum Sharshouh and began burning down houses and terrorizing the population, forcing 250 Christian families to flee the area.
Terrible things happen in wars, of course, and the FSA’s terrorizing of a Christian village doesn’t necessarily mean that it wouldn’t be effective against the Islamic State. But given this behavior, what kind of a society might the Free Syrian Army establish in Syria, were they to come to power? Apparently not one that would secure the rights of religious minorities, for the terror attack at Oum Sharshouh was not an isolated incident…
Video Free Syrian army attack 2014 Extreme close fighting close combat
Worthy News reported that just two days after the attack on Oum Sharshouh, Free Syrian Army rebels, targeted the residents of al-Duwayr/Douar, a Christian village close to the city of Homs and near Syria’s border with Lebanon….Around 350 armed militants forcefully entered the homes of Christian families who were all rounded-up in the main square of the village and then summarily executed.
Video Free Syrian army attack from ancient Christian town of Maaloula
In September 2013, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry praised the Free Syrian Army as “a real moderate opposition,” the FSA took to the Internet to post videos of its attack on the ancient Syrian Christian city of Maaloula, one of the few places where Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken.
Video Syria's Nusra Front releases U.N. peacekeepers
Investigative journalist Patrick Poole reported in PJ Media that “multiple media reports indicate that the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) is operating openly with ISIS and other designated terrorist groups.”
Indeed. The New York Times reported in August that, according to Abu Osama, a member of a Nusra Front brigade that participated in the attack, the Arsal assault was “a combined operation involving fighters from the Free Syrian Army, the Nusra Front and ISIS.” The Times was skeptical:
Abu Osama’s remarks could not be immediately verified, and such cooperation between the F.S.A., the Nusra Front and ISIS would be unusual; the groups have clashed in bouts of rebel infighting in Syria.
The Times’ skepticism was unwarranted. Bassel Idriss, a Free Syrian Army commander, said in early September : “We are collaborating with the Islamic State and the Nusra Front by attacking the Syrian Army’s gatherings in … Qalamoun.” Perhaps aware his group is supposed to be full of “vetted moderates” who are ready to fight the Islamic State, not work with it, he added: “We have reached a point where we have to collaborate with anyone against unfairness and injustice. Let’s face it: The Nusra Front is the biggest power present right now in Qalamoun and we as FSA would collaborate on any mission they launch as long as it coincides with our values.” What mission and what values? “Our battle is with the Assad regime, and it is on Syrian lands only.”
In other words, they have no plans to go to battle against the Islamic State in Iraq, no matter what Barack Obama says.
Video ISIS: 'worlds richest terror group' in 60 seconds
People love the strong horse, said Osama bin Laden, and that applies to at least some members of the Free Syrian Army. Jordan Schachtel reported at Breitbart in July that “several factions within the Syrian opposition force known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have pledged services to the Islamic State, the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Sources and eyewitnesses said that the FSA has handed over its weapons to the Islamic State in large numbers.”
Now the House and the Senate have given Barack Obama the green light to give them even more weapons, and the Senate is certain to agree. Will those, too, end up in the hands of the Islamic State?
Placing hope in and giving weapons to the Free Syrian Army to take down the Islamic State is the pinnacle of Obama’s fantasy-based policymaking. If only we had a viable opposition party in Congress – then this mad scheme might have been averted.
“Demonstrating yet again that we do not have an effective opposition party in the United States right now,...”
Never did.
See my tag line.
The Syrian rebels are ISIS or at least in league with them. This vote by the Senate to arm them up is INSANE! Both of our RINO moron GA senators voted for it. Why would we think the Syrian rebels are going to fight ISIS?
Just what Iraq needs 5,000 Syrian rebels being injected into their fight and on their turf.
Exactly true.
4 more:
1: The US has proven time and time again that it has zero ability to discern “friendlies” from “enemies” when it comes to these types of guerilla wars the US clumsily stumbles into. Jet fighters with transponders, no problems. This is a quick-patch shallowly-considered jerkball move taken for the purpose of appearing to do *something*. The more the US hates these kinds of wars (for plenty of good reasons) the more it is likely to make poorly-considered kabuki-theater moves like this.
2: This appears to generate 5K friendly fighters against an estimated 30K ISIS with good possibilities of doubling the ISIS forces over the year this is supposed to take to come to fruition. Yeah, that’ll work. 5 versus 60.
3: Considering the number of Muslim Brotherhood operatives now ensconced in the White House in the DHS plus the always present possibility that any FSA force we “create” will have numbers of spies, there is essentially zero chance of ever achieving any sort of surprise in any act this force will be charged with carrying out.
4: Especially because this is being done in this pre-election period, there will be no particular way to know, when our so-called leaders come back, whether this has any functionality to it. But by that time, it will be “let’s give it another year” no matter how good or bad it is working or not working by that time. In other words, there will be legislative inertia created here; the reluctance to shut this effort off, ever, no matter how badly (or wonderfully) it works out.
Bump
Whenever we arm “rebels” we end up fighting them a decade later.
The U.S. and current events in Syria is a redo of the U.S. and events in Afghanistan circa 1980s; a U.S. regime change agenda married together with local Islamist agendas, engendering a growth of Islamist terrorists and terrorist organizations, ending in the establishment of an Islamist regime.
We should not be arming anyone in this region. None of these people are our friends. None fight for liberty and freedom. All will eventually turn our weapons on us........
Stop arming muslims.
Any “vetted” pro-American rebels would have few foot soldiers and would face continual de-funding attempts by leftists and libertarian isolationists. Until Americans can recover their will to fight, we must choose between the greater evil of ISIS and the lesser evil of Assad.
Arming al queda allies...what could possibly go wrong?
One more big reason for Americans to arm themselves.
BLOAT!
Great graphic, it’s most appropriate!
It’s insanity to arm them. That, or part of a plan to destroy this country.
Al Franken wants to take your black rifle... while arming syrian rebels.
1 and only 1
They are TERRORISTS!
I agree it’s a crazy idea. But then there’s this agreement: “This time around, The White House and Pentagon agree on the basic outlines of a strategy to attack the Islamic State — one that centers on arming and training proxy forces, including Syrian rebels, Kurdish fighters and the Iraqi army, backed by U.S. and allied air power.” —http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rift-widens-between-obama-us-military-over-strategy-to-fight-islamic-state/2014/09/18/ebdb422e-3f5c-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html
31,000 against well-armed general populations of millions? Head-choppers heads would be blown off before they could drag you out of your domicile to chop chop. Fax them over our 2nd amendment you fear-mongering, foreign policy psychopaths. Then, call it a day and do us a favor. RESIGN.
Great post & tagline. We need a 2nd party and 2nd amendment to guarantee our safety and security against these criminals, foreign and domestic.
—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
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