U.S. pledges $12M to Syria's rebels (Obama to use taxpayer's money to arm possible terrorist)

cbs ^ | 4/1/2012 | ap

[tobyhill]

A coalition of more than 70 partners, including the United States, pledged Sunday to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to Syria's opposition groups, signaling deeper involvement in the conflict amid a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone cannot end the Damascus regime's repression.

The shift by the U.S. and its Western and Arab allies toward seeking to sway the military balance in Syria carries regional risks because the crisis there increasingly resembles a proxy conflict that could exacerbate sectarian tensions. The Syrian rebels are overmatched by heavily armed regime forces.

The summit meeting of the "Friends of the Syrian People" follows a year of failed diplomacy that seems close to running its course with a troubled peace plan led by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Indeed, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other participants at the conference in Istanbul uniformly expressed concern that Annan's plan might backfire, speculating that Syrian President Bashar Assad would try to manipulate it to prolong his hold on power.

[bigheadfred]

Everything I’ve read so far seems to indicate that. Sunkenciv has posted and pinged me to many articles covering Syria. Thanks Civ! (Obiwan says hi)

[FreeAtlanta]

I don’t want another dime of our going overseas, until we have our debt down and our budget balanced so we don’t have to borrow the money from communist china.

Are there any weapons left from the old Iraqi Army? Can we just dump them over the border?

[FreeAtlanta]

I bet we could drop 100,000 of these around Syria for less than 500,000.

The FP-45 Liberator was a pistol manufactured by the United States military during World War II for use by resistance forces in occupied territories.

While we are at it, lets drop 500,000 around Iran.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks tobyhill.