Posted on 03/02/2012 11:03:46 PM PST by U-238
A number of recent articles make the case that the administration’s Syria policy is incoherent. Elliott Abrams says it’s worse than that: The White House’s position on Syria is duplicitous. Abrams looks at a series of recent interviews Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given to the press about Syria, and identifies what appear to be the administration’s three reasons for not supporting the Syrian opposition.
First is the administration’s concern that, according to Clinton, al Qaeda may have infiltrated the opposition. Second, she contends that arming the opposition is futile because given the regime’s firepower there is no way the opposition can win. Finally, she says that the uprising is limited in scope, and more Syrians need to take to the streets before the White House knows the uprising is serious.
“This is an amazing policy combination,” writes Abrams.
Clinton appears to argue that our intelligence agencies are so inept they cannot identify terrorists and cannot find any way at all to get arms to Syrians — as opposed to Palestinians from Hamas or other foreigners from al-Qaeda…. Second, she suggests that precisely because Assad is using tanks and artillery to attack the population, we cannot aid them because our military assistance would be too limited. They are better off dying, this argument logically holds, than fighting back. Their bravery in fighting for the past year with such limited arms is to be rewarded with the complaint that the odds are just too heavily stacked against them. Then comes the coup de grace: After saying we won’t help, after saying that outside “intervention” would only lead to more violence or “civil war,” after noting the disparity of arms between the citizens and the state, she demands that they rise up.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
And Forth it’s none of our beeswax.
Assad is Shia. Obama never takes on Shia.
The Alawites are an offshoots of Shi’ites
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-syria-alawites-sect-idUSTRE8110Q720120202
The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood called Alawites infidels for decades.
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The first to suffer if the opposition gets its way is the Christians. Assad is a no good tyrant but much like Saddam he protected the Christian minority. There are instances where one can hope both sides lose. Such a notion is unique to Mid East conflicts.Stay out.
Exactly. The Copts (Egyptian Christians) are already taking it on the chin there. Why does anyone think Syria would be any different?
And further, when your enemies are busy attacking each other, why intervene? I don’t see a good guy on either side.
The Turks are arming the revolt. This war is really the Islamists in Turkey promoting Islam while undermining an ally of Islamist Iran. A curse on both their houses.
Do you have a link for that?
This is all above thier paygrade. These smart a## acedemia elititsts “Im smarter than you because I went to Yale and Harvard are nothing but dumba##es with no clue. The despicable thing about this is that our sons and daughters will have to spill thier blood on the battle field in the fututre for thier reckless agenda driven utopian dream that will be our nightmare
she contends that arming the opposition is futile because given the regime’s firepower there is no way the opposition can win.
Pretty damn stupid remark. Of course it is not possible to arm the opposition enough for it to militarily defeat the regime, which had spent decades arming itself against Israel, the dominant military power of the region.
IF the regime's support in the military remains strong. Which is a very big IF. Even if many of the top officers are Alawite, doubtless most of the army is Sunni. Even "other ranks" are not automatons and an army can disintegrate remarkably rapidly if the soldiers lose their respect for (or fear of) of their "leaders."
There are instances where one can hope both sides lose. Such a notion is unique to Mid East conflicts.Stay out.
“our intelligence agencies are so inept”!!!
You mean those intelligence agencies of ours that get tens of billions each and every year and still couldn’t see the fall of the Soviet Union?
I am pretty sure that the Arab League via the GCC and Qatar as the action agency has the lead. operating from Turkey. The details of the the relation between the two has not been revealed but there is close cooperation.
The action now is concluding UN formalities,dotting I’s and crossing T’s, before the final and conclusive action ending the Assad regime.
Note also that it was recently posted here that Qatar is the center of an American effort to train special forces drawn from across the GCC countries. We can be sure these forces are now on the ground inside Syria
I am confused. Why do the Shia and Sunni hate each other so much? They are both mohammedan, so what is it about how they go about their daily activities that makes them different?
Remember a few years ago Nancy Pelosi went to Syria and met with Assad and was even photographed in her kerchief as she went to mosque with him? Those are the kind of photos that should be rolled out in campaign ads.
They've certainly proven your point. Unless, perhaps, their real agenda all along has been to help Osama bin Laden accomplish his goal of eliminating secular Muslim states. In that case, they're right on track.
Abrams is a real POS and should be removed from influence on US foreign policy! He’s just another friggin NY ex-Socialist and Harvard roommate of Steven Kelman, founder of the Young People’s Socialist League campus chapter PLUS ME expert @ the CFR, and big prick for the spread of ‘Democracy’ by the blood and treasure of the US military. These are the folks that now run the crappy Republican Party and have pushed Romney to the front.
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