Posted on 06/10/2013 3:05:39 PM PDT by drewh
Moved by the Assad regime's rapid advance, the Obama administration could decide this week to approve lethal aid for the beleaguered Syrian rebels and will weigh the merits of a less likely move to send in U.S. air power to enforce a no-fly zone over the civil war-wracked nation, officials told The Associated Press Sunday.
White House meetings are planned over the coming days, as Syrian President Bashar Assad's government forces are apparently poised for an attack on the key city of Homs, which could cut off Syria's armed opposition from the south of the country. As many as 5,000 Hezbollah fighters are now in Syria, officials believe, helping the regime press on with its campaign after capturing the town of Qusair near the Lebanese border last week.
While nothing has been concretely decided, U.S. officials said President Barack Obama was leaning closer toward signing off on sending weapons to vetted, moderate rebel units. The U.S. has spoken of possibly arming the opposition in recent months but has been hesitant because it doesn't want to al Qaeda-linked and other extremists fighting alongside the anti-Assad militias to end up with the weapons. Obama already has ruled out any intervention that would require U.S. military boots on the ground. Other options such as deploying American air power to ground the regime's jets, gunships and other aerial assets are now being more seriously debated, the officials said, while cautioning that a no-fly zone or any other action involving U.S. military deployments in Syria were far less likely right now.
Any intervention could have wide-reaching ramifications for the United States and the region. It would bring the U.S. closer to a conflict that has killed almost 80,000 people since Assad cracked down on protesters inspired by the Arab Spring in March 2011 and sparked a war that has since been increasingly defined by sectarian clashes between the Sunni-led rebellion and Assad's Alawite-dominated regime. And it would essentially pit the United States alongside regional allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar in a proxy war against Iran, which is providing much of the materiel to the Syrian government's counterinsurgency and, through Hezbollah, more and more of the manpower
D’ya’ think they’ll let the sockpuppet know what they’re doing?
Fast & Furious II?
A new Vietnam to match our new Watergate(s).
How abundantly logical.
How many of us are they going get killed, I wonder...?
Arming al Qaeda they mean.
The boy was executed because he mentioned Mohamed while selling coffee.
And these are the people the US wants to arm!
Full article is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/teenager-15-executed-islamist-rebels-syria-154751521—abc-news-topstories.html
BS!!
We’ve been arming them since last year, Biden said so in the VP debate!
I guess we did not learn our lesson when we armed the mujahedin against the Russians. That turned out well for us.(sarc)
We need to stay the f-ing hell out of there. O`Bozo has demonstrated that contrary to the lame-stream opinion, without his telepromter, his is a roaring idiot but arming the moose-limb brotherhood takes the frikin cake! This guy is either a retard or he is an active and devoted Islamic terrorist sympathizer. Personally, I say both but, hey, I actually pay attention to his actions.
A trip wire for war. Defend America not the world.
Sheesh.
They make make "Senator" Fake-a-hontas look reasonable.
They're already arming them, via the Muslim Brotherhood - Obama's Middle East campaign funding wing.
(just my opinion)
That’s nice, it’s all but over.
Of course our first Muslim President will side with Al-Qeada.
Wag the dog time, folks.
We have NO business in that civil war!!!!! Bring our weapons home. Bring all our children home from the Middle East. Enough already! Why are we picking sides in a muslim religious war? Which muslim side are we backing?
I hope the Russians are watching and will balance out whatever aid we supply - preferably at a 2:1 or better ratio. We need to stay out of this, and as with so many issues today, the Russians are far more on America’s side than the White House is.
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