Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumThe US decision to send weapons to Syria repeats a historical mistake
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-US-decision-to-send-we-by-Trevor-Timm-CIA_Congress_Decision_Republican-150919-93.htmlObama Administration OKs Weapons To Syria
The US decision to send weapons to Syria repeats a historical mistake
By Trevor Timm
OpEdNews Op Eds 9/19/2015 at 19:12:01
Why does the US continually send deadly weapons to the Middle East, make things even more chaotic than they were before and expect better results the next time?
As pretty much everyone who was paying attention predicted, the $500m program to train and arm "moderate" Syrian rebels is an unmitigated, Bay of Pigs-style disaster, with the head of US central command admitting to Congress this week that the year-old program now only has "four or five" rebels fighting inside Syria, with dozens more killed or captured.
Even more bizarre, the White House is claiming little to do with it. White House spokesman Josh Earnest attempted to distance Obama from the program, claiming that it was actually the president's "critics" who "were wrong." The New York Times reported, "In effect, Mr Obama is arguing that he reluctantly went along with those who said it was the way to combat the Islamic State, but that he never wanted to do it and has now has been vindicated in his original judgment."
This bizarre "I was peer pressured into sending more weapons into the Middle East" argument by the president is possibly the most blatant example of blame shifting in recent memory, since he had every opportunity to speak out against it, or veto the bill. Instead, this is what Obama said at the time: "I am pleased that Congress...have now voted to support a key element of our strategy: our plan to train and equip the opposition in Syria."
GeorgeGist
(25,319 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)ISIS Leader Omar al-Shishani Fought Under U.S. Umbrella as Late as 2013
By Brad Hoff
September 19, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - "Levant Report" - Abu Omar al-Shishani, the red-bearded face of ISIS terror lately described in such headlines as Star pupil: Pied piper of ISIS recruits was trained by U.S. for the fact that he received American military training as part of an elite Georgian army unit in 2006 and after, did not stop playing for team America once he left his home country in the Caucuses. He actually enjoyed U.S. backing and American taxpayer largesse as late as 2013, soon after entering Syria with his band of Chechen jihadists.
A new book about ISIS chronicles the terror groups earliest successes when it first made a name for itself on the Syrian battlefield by tipping the scales in favor of rebels in Northern Aleppo who had spent nearly a total of two years attempting to conquer the Syrian governments seemingly impenetrable Menagh Airbase.
Benjamin Hall, journalist and author of Inside ISIS: The Brutal Rise of a Terrorist Army, was embedded in Northern Syria during part of the 2012-2013 siege of Menagh, even staying in FSA camps outside the base as attacks were underway.
At that time the Revolutionary Military Council of Aleppo was the US/UK officially sanctioned command structure in the region headed by FSA Colonel Abdul Jabbar al-Okaidi, described in international press at the time as a main recipient of Western aid.
Hall, who throughout his book expresses sympathy and occasional outright support for the insurgent groups within which he was embedded, describes the pathetic state of a rebel movement in disarray and lacking morale. He identifies a singular turning point which renewed both the tide of rebel military momentum and morale in Northern Syria:
Hall further relates that Omar Shishanis (or Omar the Chechen) presence evoked a certain level of mystique and awe among his FSA associates as he systematically obliterated Menagh defenses by sacrificing as many men as it took and rightly concludes that, it is no exaggeration to say that Shishani and other battle hardened members of ISIS are the ones who brought the early military success. [2]
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Former ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has since admitted that the rebels funded by the State Department included ISIS and other Al-Qaeda fighters in their ranks. He recently told McClatchy reporter Hannah Allam that he had called Okaidi to tell him that his public cooperation with Abu Omar Shishani and associates was extremely unhelpful, extra unhelpful:
Amazingly, Okaidis courtship with the West didnt end in 2013, even after such top U.S. officials confirmed that the rebel leader had been in a position of operational command over ISIS terrorists, some of which now fill out the top tiers of Islamic States ranks.
As recently as last July 2015, CNN gave Okaidi lengthy and virtually uninterrupted air time in a Christiane Amanpour interview to make a public appeal for a U.S. imposed no-fly buffer zone over Syria in support of moderate rebelsthis on what the network bills as its flagship global affairs program.
Continued at:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42902.htm