Syria to Be Solved Internally Not by U.S. Action: Obama
Source: Bloomberg
By Angela Greiling Keane May 29, 2014 12:00 AM ET
The conflict in Syria will be solved only by the groups within the that country, not by U.S. military involvement, President Barack Obama told NPR News in an interview.
Obama spoke about empowering Syrian moderate opposition following a commencement speech yesterday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he laid out his foreign policy goals for the final years of his presidency.
I still do not believe that American military actions can resolve what is increasingly a sectarian civil war, Obama said in the interview scheduled to air today. Ultimately, the only way youre going to get a resolution that works for the Syrian people and the region is going to -- is going to require some sort of political accommodation between the various groups there.
The White House yesterday said it will ask Congress for $5 billion for an anti-terrorism fund to train other countries in a supplemental budget request for the Defense Department.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-29/syria-to-be-solved-internally-not-by-u-s-action-obama.html
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)That counts as "U.S. action," Mr. President.
lark
(23,105 posts)They seem so determined to make the same mistake over again. Can see why Repugs want this as they are all war all the time, but think Obama is making a big mistake in not learning the lessons from our history.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)when we are using the same strategy now in Syria and all over Africa.
pampango
(24,692 posts)How can anyone "empower Syrian moderate opposition"? Is all opposition to Assad now terrorists? At this point is it a choice between Assad and the terrorists (Bashar's version of Bush's infamous "You are with us or you are with the terrorists." ?
Obama seems to believe that there is another choice than the "black or white" - Assad or the terrorists choice. Perhaps he should push for self-determination for Syria's Sunni Muslims who represent 70% of Syria's population. That idea seemed to work for ethnic Russians in Crimea.
My reading of his speech is not that the US will never take any action anywhere. Indeed he said the US would lead just not with its military. "Just because you have the best hammer in the world does not mean that every problem is a nail."
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Remember death squads in El Salvador?
pampango
(24,692 posts)too. If Obama funds death squads in Syria then he is not better than Reagan.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Defense Department documents released to ProPublica give the fullest picture yet of the arms sales: The list includes ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Blackhawk helicopters, and an unidentified missile system.
The way we pick and choose which atrocities demand our intervention (Syria, Nigeria), and which don't (East Timor, Rwanda, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia), puts the lie to the Government's crocodile tears over human suffering. They cynically use this suffering to justify intervention for their own imperial designs.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)to other people so they can use them is not a military action
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)So no military involvement, all US intelligence like CIA ?
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-training-syrian-moderates-jordan-officials
On the final day, they were told that they would be flown the next day to a training camp in Qatar, a monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Then they were transported to a training facility they believed was near the border with Saudi Arabia.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/syria-arming-the-rebels/syrian-rebels-describe-u-s-backed-training-in-qatar/