How Will the U.S. Decide Which Syrian Rebels to Arm?
Identifying “moderate” groups to train and equip will be exceedingly difficult.
BY RACHEL ROUBEIN
September 15, 2014 Congress is expected to vote this week on giving the Obama administration the authority to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria by providing arms and training—to someone. But whom?
Even assuming President Obama gets the authority he wants, experts say deciding who exactly should get American aid is an exceedingly difficult task. There are vast differences among Syrian rebel fighters—a conglomerate of varying ideologies, social backgrounds, and loyalties. And the questions of who exactly is a Syrian moderate, and whether these weapons will fall into the wrong hands, loom large on Capitol Hill.
“As you know, in the Middle East, it’s very difficult to predict what’s going to happen,” Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia said after emerging from a closed-door House GOP conference meeting Thursday. “And that’s why everybody wants to be very careful about this because we do have concerns about that.”
https://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/how-will-the-u-s-decide-which-syrian-rebels-to-arm-20140915
Ask former President George Bush. He is the expert on Iraq.
Just bomb. That’s what he would say. And send American ground troops. Ask questions latter.