Obama backs U.S. military training for Syrian rebels
Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2014, 04:42 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
The Obama administration has asked Congress to authorize direct U.S. military training and equipment for Syrian opposition fighters, a move that could significantly escalate U.S. involvement in Syrias civil war.
Money for the program, which would expand a current CIA covert training program, is included in a $65.8 billion request for Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, added to the fiscal year 2015 Defense Department budget. Details of the OCO budget had been withheld from the budget request that Congress has been considering.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-backs-us-military-training-for-syrian-rebels/2014/06/26/ead59104-fd62-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html
Obama to Request $500 Million to Aid Syrian Opposition
President Obama on Thursday requested $500 million from Congress to train and equip what the White House is calling appropriately vetted members of the Syrian opposition. The request comes as the administration is trying to put some form to the presidents surprise announcement last month of plans for a $5 billion counterterrorism fund to provide training for operations in vulnerable countries in the Middle East.
The training program would be the most significant action yet by the United States in the conflict in Syria, which has spilled over the border now to Iraq, where a Qaeda-inspired insurgency is threatening the American-backed government.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/world/middleeast/obama-seeks-500-million-to-train-and-equip-syrian-opposition.html?emc=edit_na_20140626
rtracey
(2,062 posts)Smart move...do NOT do anything without having Congress see or work with it. Let Congress be the bad guys when the shit falls, not the President....
nyabingi
(1,145 posts)so it is his problem and he's just asking the other idiots in Washington to join him.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)loud and clear.
Fine, let them scream, I actually agree with them, stay out of ALL this mess, but DON'T DO IT ALONE... GET CONGRESS HANDS DIRTY... he needs to stop allowing these "idiots" to make a fool of him.
gwheezie
(3,580 posts)Does this sound nuts to anyone else? So we sent troops to Iraq to be on one side of the civil war and we're going to train rebels on the other side of the civil war ? Did we go crazy? I know in the past we have armed and supported both sides sometimes at the same time but this doesn't make sense to me.
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)believable. ISIL v/ISIS supported by the US on both sides. Real interesting what the Republicans do.
lark
(23,156 posts)They are all war all the time, so OF COURSE, want to take this action which strongly increases the odds of more conflicts. They, as well as the president, also have no memories and have forgotten how we funded Al-Quaeda against the Russians and ended up with 911 as a result. They only care about the increased profits for the MIC and for the increased prices of oil. Of course, if they could get their hands on the Iraqui oil, that'd be their total wet dream.
Does anyone in Washington ever learn anything from the past? This is so stupid, can't believe Obama is promoting this deadly farce. This will only strengthen ISIS and other militants. They came into Iraq with our Hummers, now we want to give them even bigger weapons.
What fools!!
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)what you wrote to me myself using about the same words. As Morrison, my all-time favorite, might have sung...This is the end...my friend. The end-- If Obama does this, I have to reconsider a lot of things. I knew what would happen with Iraq and wasn't wrong about one single thing. I know what will happen if Obama gives the Syrian rebels (basically ISIL) more arms.
lark
(23,156 posts)The administration seems to have it's head firmly in the sand. Sad.
tjl148
(185 posts)Unless you have read something I haven't I think the Repugs will want nothing to do with this. This will be all Dems and the President if it goes through. President Obama's quicksand.
lark
(23,156 posts)I hope in this case the Repugs vote against it, but can't imagine them losing a chance for more war and to get back into Iraq.
and they are idiots.
zeemike
(18,998 posts)There are billions to be made by arming both sides in a war...and watch the defense stocks shoot up...and sense only the "little people" pay taxes we get to pay for it.
It's a wealth transfer from us to the MIC.
But yes we have went crazy...and there seems no end to it that is comforting
nyabingi
(1,145 posts)before US military are facing each other down at the Iraq/Syria border firing on each other.
This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen, surpassing even the criminal Bush regime, but the Democrats are going to support it because it's an election year...
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)We should bomb anyone who is out there with large military equipment and otherwise stay out of it. If they have equipment we left behind, we should destroy that equipment.
We shouldn't be training anyone. They will turn that training against us and against our allies. What idiocy.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)President Barack Obama is asking Congress for $500 million to train and arm vetted members of the Syrian opposition, as the U.S. grapples for a way to stem a civil war that has also fueled the al-Qaida inspired insurgency in neighboring Iraq.
The military training program would deepen the Obama administration's involvement in the more than four-year conflict between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. If approved by Congress, the program would supplement a covert train-and-assistance program run by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/26/6514727/obama-seeks-500m-to-train-equip.html
tom_kelly
(962 posts)CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)PAY for it?
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)social services, Detroit is in crisis and we are giving these shady people money? Even if we had Clinton type surplus, I would still be against any aiding of these guys
nyabingi
(1,145 posts)politically cowed into supporting military adventurism by bloodthirsty Republicans, neo-conservatives, and spineless Democrats who are only worried about implications for elections later this year ("oh no, we can't appear to be weak on foreign policy AND Obamacare!!" .
The swarming of ISIS/ISIL across the border into Iraq can be directly pinned on Obama and his policy of supporting regime in Syria and his efforts to provide arms to them. The FSA were quickly run out of town by al-Nusra and ISIS in Syria, and these extremists are most likely rampaging through Iraq with American Humvees and M-16s thanks to the Obama administration's short-sightedness.
Now he's asking for more money to increase the killing and misery in the Middle East, and some people are applauding him for having the decency to at least ask Congress??
Obama, by accepting the Bush regime/neo-con view of world affairs and our role in it, is furthering the swift decent of this country into a militarized, fascist state and he can count on all the silly people who are still holding out for the elusive "Hope" and "Change" to support him.
SMH...
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)nyabingi
(1,145 posts)AngryDem001
(684 posts)WHY?! Why can't we just let them fight it out?! The "rebels" are NO better than the Syrian gov't in terms of the treatment of women! People in the middle east have been slaughtering each other for millennia! What the hell can we do except stir up the hornet's nest even more?
Get out. Close the embassies in the ME. Close all bases. Bring every soldier home. Recall all ambassadors and staff. Think of the lives and resources saved.
Let's focus on the problems here at home.
ausboy
(11 posts)"no better than the gov't in terms of treatment of women" ???
The Rebels are by FAR worse. They have been raping, torturing and beheading women as part of their Jihad.
Here are just a few news titles:
- ISIS Imposes Jizya on Christians, Rapes Women Who Cannot Pay
- Iraq: Militants Hunting for Wives; Children Used as Snipers
- Iraq crisis: ISIS rebels hunting for wives in Baiji
and only recently - Christian Father Commits Suicide After ISIS Members Rape Wife
there are thousands of cases out there.
By comparison, the Syrian government allowed women to dress liberally and practice whatever religion they wanted freely. We lived just fine until the foreign rebels started coming in and being supported by other countries.
There is no leader who is 100%. Assad is no saint, but he is not the war mongering, blood thirsty murderer he's painted out to be either. In fact, that description much better fits the opposition. All these deaths would have been completely avoided if foreign intervention did not come about...
The initial protests that sparked the case for all this aren't the cause of all this. The foreign, saudi and US backed jihadists are!
By contrast, did you know that protests had also started in Saudi Arabia and they were quickly killed and snuffed out? Nobody heard anything about the king's brutality etc.... Instead we hear about Assad's brutality because it's all a big ploy.
I hope everyone here continues to be loud, and continues to voice their true unbias opinions. It's good to see on here.
WatermelonRat
(340 posts)If we'd supported the Free Syrian Army in the beginning, it might be different, but at this point it's unlikely for them to defeat either the regime or ISIL.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)We need that money at home. I hope ISIS collapses within the next few months.
christx30
(6,241 posts)we never up armored those Humvees. So, um, yay, I guess?
n2doc
(47,953 posts)For once, I am hoping the idiots in congress continue to obstruct.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
''The true value of a conflict is in the debt it produces -- you control the debt, you control everything''.
roamer65
(36,747 posts)The Kurds are much more trustworthy and deserve it. To hell with Riyadh and Tehran and their proxy war.
TheKentuckian
(25,029 posts)daleo
(21,317 posts)And which week is this? I wouldn't want to miscalculate.
bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)Seriously, how do you tell the good rebels from the bad rebels. Obama had this right the first time.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)As a Syrian rebel, I think the word or phrase that best describes me is:
A) Moderate
B) Very moderate
C) Crazy moderate
D) Other
http://m.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/06/moderate-syrian-rebel-application-form.html
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Not just secret CIA programs.
This needs to be killed in Congress.
ozone_man
(4,825 posts)And all the atrocities that have resulted. Syria is a secular government, the alternatives are very ugly. US and Saudia Arabia got us into this Isis situation, we have to change course. Obama seems incapable of making good decisions.
Bazkoare
(4 posts)Syrian regime isn't that secular. Secular compared to Riyadh, sure.
What people haven't mentioned anywhere is how COIN operations in 2009 might be another factor in what we've been seeing.
Patreus used massive amounts of American government money to all but bribe Sunni groups from attacking American forces. Now, many of these individuals and groups seem to be very much involved in what is going on there now. So, in Obama's desire to extricate himself from Iraq, he gave a bunch of guns and a ton of money which is probably where ISIS got a significant part of its equipment outside of Prince Bandar's crew.
Obviously, has anyone asked how well those people were vetted? The American government also must have spent time vetting the reformed Iraqi security forces before flooding their ranks with weaponry and "training".
So, why should we trust that Obama's administration will perform any better in Syria?
If there was ever a precedent to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize, I thin Obama's actions dwarf it.
ozone_man
(4,825 posts)This seems close to the way it works. Just stay out of it US. Haven't we done enough damage?