WASHINGTON — Just a month before a peace conference that will seek an end to the grinding civil war in Syria, the Obama administration’s decision to suspend the delivery of nonlethal aid to the moderate opposition demonstrated again the frustrations of trying to cultivate a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.
That would be "official" non-leathal aid. And of course, no mention of "lethal aid".
The administration acted after warehouses of American-supplied equipment were seized Friday by the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist fighters who have broken with the moderate, American-backed opposition, but who also battle Al Qaeda.
Meaning, after people such as myself, pointed out numerous times that Al-Qaeda was quite active in the Civil War and stood to gain the most by the removal of Assad. Just as there was a need to justify an intervention, there is a need to justify a reversal. This event provides the necessary "we aren't aiding Al-Qaeda" cover needed by the administration. Also, by knowing that Al-Qaeda was involved in the opposition, the US government was in violation of it's own so called "anti-terrorism" laws, which state clearly that any aid to a terrorist organization is a violation of federal law. Yeah, so there's that.
Administration officials said that the suspension, confirmed on Wednesday, was temporary and that the nonlethal aid, which is supplied by the State Department, could flow again.
Translation: As soon as we figure out how to get around this Al-Qaeda problem.
American officials are still struggling to assess what the internecine battle means. “If we’re able to understand that, we could revert to the provision of nonlethal assistance,” a senior administration official said.
What is there to "figure out"? The more militant group is trying to take over from the less militant group. The goal: topple Assad. If the more militant group wins, Al -Qaeda gets a new state. What else needs to be explained? For US policy (which I'm not commenting directly on here) is to keep a lid on Al-Qaeda, making a proxy war with Assad was a huge, huge, huge mistake.
The official said that the United States would not rule out talks with the Islamic Front, but that it was too soon to determine whether the administration would abandon its insistence that all American and allied assistance be funneled through the Supreme Military Council.
Read that again. Now read my previous comment about the terrorism laws. So the administration is actively considering funding an Al-Qaeda organization? I wonder what all those soldiers who have blown off limbs and the families of the slain who were told they were fighting the enemy think about that?
At the same time, the opposition groups that the Obama administration has designated as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people appear to have grown weaker, in part because of their tenuous ties to many of the rebel fighters inside the country and because of the lukewarm support they have received from the West.
Obama gets to decide who is the legitimate representative of people outside the US? I had no idea. You know, that would be like, say Putin deciding that the Tea Party was the legitimate representative of the United States. No really, THAT is what it's like.
A major aim of the meeting is to begin the process of identifying Syrians who might serve in a transitional governing body that would run the country if Mr. Assad yielded power.
Imagine if you would that during the US Revolutionary War, France decided that as a condition of their support, they would set up a meeting in say Madrid, where they would get to have a direct hand in who would be the "legitimate leadership" of the new republic. Yeah, it's THAT odd. How about this: To the winner goes the spoils?
Khatab, the commander of a small Free Syrian Army battalion, interviewed by phone in Turkey, said that the suspension would hamper fighters like his. But he added that it would ultimately harm the Islamic Front as well, suggesting that whatever the official policies, the Islamic Front had cooperated with the Supreme Military Council and received supplies through it.
A nice admission. I'm sure that included "lethal aid" as well.
