Sen. Corker: I Think We’ll Be Arming Syrian Rebels ‘Shortly’
Source: TPM
IGOR BOBIC 10:49 AM EDT, TUESDAY MAY 7, 2013
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations committee who notably golfed with President Barack Obama on Monday, believes the United States will soon be arming the Syrian opposition.
"I do think we'll be arming the opposition shortly," he said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." "We're doing a lot more on the ground than really is known but we do have to change the equation. ... The moderate opposition groups we support are not as good at fighting, they're not as good at delivering humanitarian aid."
Corker joined Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) -- who shot a memorable hole-in-one -- on the links with Obama at Andrews Air Force base in Washington. Chambliss added later that the four spoke "a little bit" about the situation in Syria.
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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sen-corker-i-think-well-be-arming-syrian
Link to CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57583191/sen-corker-on-syria-u.s-will-be-arming-the-rebels-soon/
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)There may very well be moderate opposition groups but there is also hardline fundamentalist asshole groups and finding the difference will be near impossible. We should stay out of it.
sinkingfeeling
(51,444 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)There is no win in this whatsoever.
fleur-de-lisa
(14,624 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)And our invasion and occupation of Iraq turned out so well, too.
Why not go for the trifecta?
bunnies
(15,859 posts)Why does it seem like its never an option? All we do is fight wars, arm people for wars, give money for wars...
Enough already!
SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)Because this is a civil war between Al Qaeda on the side of the rebels and Hezbollah on the side of the Syrian government. Heads they win, tails we lose.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)4Q2u2
(1,406 posts)There is a bright side possibly. Who ever votes to arm the Syrian Rebels will be assisting a Terrorist Org, and Old Shrub made it unlawful. So maybe we can get Corker a one way ticket to GITMO.
Boy, some of the people speaking for our Foreign Policy are just headache inducing. Just stay the Hell out of all of it, them killing each other without our help or troops is the best solution.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Doing it officially or through proxies like Qatar or Saudi Arabia, does it matter?
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Bet he's all for austerity here.
If we're so broke we have to let our elderly, poor and disabled go without needed programs for food how do we have money to arm rebels overseas and why does that take priority over our own citizens?
eissa
(4,238 posts)Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)This article is a little more than one year old - but I think it is still very relevant. I strongly recommend reading this article in salon.com by Gary Kamiya:
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/dont_arm_syrias_rebels/singleton/
snips:
This is not a knee-jerk left-wing response. It has nothing to do with Iraq. Nor does it have anything to do with the proxy war between the U.S. and its allies and Iran and its allies. It is not driven by pacifism or opposition to all war. All U.S. wars are not axiomatically foolish, evil or driven by brutal self-interest (although most of them since World War II have been). The airstrikes on Kosovo and the Libya campaign were justified (although the jury is still out on the latter intervention). If arming the Syrian opposition would result in fewer deaths and a faster transition to a peaceful, open, democratic society, we should arm them.
That analysis has been provided by a number of in-depth reports, most notably a new study by the International Crisis Group, as well as the excellent on-the-ground reporting of Nir Rosen for Al-Jazeera. The bottom line is simple. The war has become a zero-sum game for Assad. If he loses, he dies. But the only way he can lose is if he is abandoned by his crucial external patron, Russia, which is extremely unlikely to happen absent some slaughter so egregious that Moscow feels it has to cut ties with him. Assad has sufficient domestic support to hold on for a long time, and a huge army that is not likely to defect en masse. Under these circumstances, giving arms to the rebels, however much it may make conscience-stricken Western observers feel better, will simply make the civil war much bloodier and its outcome even more chaotic and dangerous.
The key point concerns Assads domestic support. Contrary to the widely held belief that most Syrians support the opposition and are opposed to the Assad regime, Syrians are in fact deeply divided. The countrys minorities the ruling Alawites, Christians and Druze tend to support the regime, if only because they fear what will follow its downfall. (The grocery on my corner in San Francisco is owned by a Christian Syrian from a village outside Damascus. When I asked him what he thought about what was going on in his country, he said, Its not like what you see on TV. Assad is a nice guy. Hes trying to do the right thing.) As Rosen makes clear, Syrias ruling Alawite minority is the key to Assads survival: Absent an outside invasion, the regime will not fall unless the Alawites turn on it. But the Alawites fear reprisals if the Sunni-dominated opposition, some of whose members have threatened to exterminate the Alawites, defeats the Assad regime. The fear of a sectarian war, exacerbated by the murky and incoherent nature of the opposition, means that the minorities are unlikely to join the opposition in large numbers.
...
Our national instinct is to come riding to the rescue. It goes against our character to simply sit on our hands. Our sincere, naive and self-centered belief that America can fix everything, and our equally sincere, naive and self-centered belief that moral outrage justifies intervention, is a powerful tide, pulling us toward getting directly involved in Syrias civil war.
But in the real world, we cannot always come riding to the rescue. Sometimes, we have no choice but to watch tragedy unfold, because anything we do will create an even bigger tragedy.
read full article:
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/dont_arm_syrias_rebels/singleton/
peace13
(11,076 posts)May we please do away with the Patriot Act? Hey, we're all business partners now!
Caeser67
(156 posts)And Israel will be shooting them later.
magellan
(13,257 posts)...and provide logistical support. It'll be so much easier when we're arming the rebels, including the islamists, ourselves.
okaawhatever
(9,461 posts)what our plan on the ground is. Smells like throwing us under the bus to me. To suggest we will be arming rebels or that we're doing more on the ground than is known. Plleeaassse. That's a no win comment if ever i've heard one.