U.S. Options In Syria Shrivel As Islamists And Assad Regime Make Gains

[Purveyor]

By Tim Lister, CNN
December 4, 2014

(CNN) -- The fortunes of potential U.S. allies among Syrian rebel groups are ebbing fast as hardline Salafist groups and especially al Qaeda's affiliate go on the offensive. The past month has dealt further reverses to already-beleaguered moderate groups, whose presence in the critical northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo has further eroded.

This is a growing headache for the Obama administration, which is trying to identify, train and "stand up" moderate rebel factions to take on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Washington has announced a $500 million program to train 5,000 fighters over one year.

But it is yet to begin, and some of these groups are now in retreat or on the verge of extinction. Those that aren't are wary of being identified as "Washington's guys" because of the administration's focus on degrading ISIS but not going after Syrian government forces.

Tough road for moderate groups

Analysts say moderate groups are caught between a rock and a hard place, pilloried by radical factions for taking Western weapons but failing to get enough of them (or quickly enough) to become serious players.

Noah Bonsey of the International Crisis Group writes in Foreign Policy, "For a rebel commander seeking to convince his fighters that cooperation with Washington is in the rebellion's best interest, American strikes that ignore the Assad regime while hitting (Islamist rebels in) Ahrar al-Sham are extremely difficult to explain."

MORE...

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/04/world/meast/syria-analysis-lister/

[Bagsgroove]

1. Here's an option...

Get Out

[bemildred]

2. Bummer. nt

[quadrature]

3. what did Syria do to the US?

same question for Libya

[nichomachus]

4. Just got in the way of our neoliberal world domination

[geek tragedy]

5. Yeah, Assad is totally a victim of persecution! nt

[Odin2005]

6. We done fucked up.

[Bagsgroove]

7. Us? Fucked up?

It's kind of surprising that we fucked up since we've done so well with our other military interventions, like Vietnam, Iraq, Cuba, Beirut, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan...hmm, come to think of it, in the last half century of military interventions when have we not left a bigger mess than we came in on?

[Purveyor]

8. Again and again and again... eom