Syria: U.S. Resumes Arms Delivery To Al-Qaeda, Furthers Destruction
The past U.S. policy of providing arms to the Syrian insurgency failed to achieve any of its purported objectives. Neither did it result in a success of the insurgency in its attempt to overthrow the Syrian government, nor did help to keep the various Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria at bay. Instead the weapons provide to the "moderate" insurgents fell into the hands of the Al-Qaeda affiliates while the "moderate" insurgency fell apart. In effect the U.S. provided the logistics to those it claimed to have fought over the last twelve years.
As usual the U.S. response to a failed policy is to do more of the same.
The U.S. congress has voted to further arm "moderate" insurgents in Syria:
Light arms supplied by the United States are flowing to "moderate" Syrian rebel factions in the south of the country and U.S. funding for months of further deliveries has been approved by Congress, according U.S. and European security officials.The weapons, most of which are moving to non-Islamist Syrian rebels via Jordan, include a variety of small arms, as well as some more powerful weapons, such as anti-tank rockets.
Earlier U.S. weapon deliveries have fallen into the hand of Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra:
Senior Free Syrian Army and Jordanian sources, along with video evidence, have confirmed that European-made anti-tank missiles were obtained, and in some cases sold, to the hard-line Nusra Front after being supplied to vetted Free Syrian Army battalions across the Jordanian border.
The vetted FSA in the south is little more than a public relations front for al-Nusra:
"They offer their services and cooperate with us, they are better armed than we are, they have suicide bombers and know how to make car bombs," an FSA fighter explained.
...
"The FSA and Al Nusra join together for operations but they have an agreement to let the FSA lead for public reasons, because they don't want to frighten Jordan or the West," said an activist who works with opposition groups in Deraa."Operations that were really carried out by Al Nusra are publicly presented by the FSA as their own," he said.
A leading FSA commander involved in operations in Deraa said Al Nusra had strengthened FSA units and played a decisive role in key rebel victories in the south.
"The face of Al Nusra cannot be to the front. It must be behind the FSA, for the sake of Jordan and the international community," he said.
The U.S. as also resumed "non-lethal" aid to insurgents in the north:
The United States has restarted deliveries of nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition, officials said Monday, more than a month after Al-Qaeda-linked militants seized warehouses and prompted a sudden cutoff of Western supplies to the rebels.The communications equipment and other items are being funneled for now only to non-armed opposition groups, said the U.S. officials.
...
The U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity, said the aid was being sent through Turkey into Syria, with the coordination of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, ...
When the jihadists raided those warehouses with "non-lethal" aid provided by the United States they looted this stuff:
[A senior FSA Supreme Military Council official] said that the Islamic Front raided a total of ten warehouses belonging to the Western-backed umbrella group and seized a significant arsenal of weaponry, including 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 1,000 assorted arms—including M79 Osa rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, and 14.5mm heavy machine guns—in addition to more than 200 tons of ammunition. At least 100 FSA military vehicles were also taken in the attack.
The resumption of arms supplies to the Syrian insurgency will not lead to any different outcome than earlier deliveries of such supplies. This then again proves that the real purpose of the U.S. instigated war on Syria and of the efforts to extend it is still this:
Destruction of the infrastructure, economy and social fabric of Syria is their and their supporters aim.
Posted by b on January 28, 2014 at 11:32 UTC | Permalink
« previous page@89
If you actually knew anything about the subject you would not have to engage in the constant copypasta.
But since you don't, i guess googling Gowans is, for you, a substitue for actually having a clue
Posted by: sheesh | Jan 31 2014 3:41 utc | 102
The last open thread is almost two weeks old. But since certain baiting tactics by trolls are almost as stale, perhaps the latest troll can be ignored on this thread.
Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Jan 31 2014 4:16 utc | 103
b. I think you should foreground as they say Oded Yinon. Everything from 1982 until today then falls neatly into place. Everything. Perfectly into place. Perfection of that sort should be recognized.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 31 2014 4:25 utc | 104
I'm very dubious about the report from Reuters from anonymous sources that the US is funding lethal weapons to the rebels in southern Syria.
'B' gives it credence on the basis of his past experience about US government subrosa support for sedition in other countries. But I don't in this case. 'B' does not believe the story on a basis of trusting Reuters and Reuters' anonymous sources. 'B' and I are in full agreement in having plenty of recent past experience of complete fictions reported by Reuters from anonymous sources. We agree we can't trust Reuters to be right, we disagree about whether we can trust this particular story to be probably right. There is no other source for the story. If the story were true it would be a new development in US policy towards Syria. The new development, if it were true, would be contrary to what's popular in US public opinion. There is almost no elected official on record advocating for it. I believe everybody including B should withhold belief in the truth of this story unless and until there's much more solid evidence for it.
I believe the story is probably false.
Separately, as a subtle point, I don't fully agree with 'B' when he says that the real purpose of US policy on Syria is the destruction of the economy and social fabric of Syria. Instead it's my reading that the US's purpose has got to be much more well-intentioned in the US's own mind, and the purpose is the replacement of the Assadists with something that is better than the Assadists. And this involves the destruction of Assadist Syria, but the destruction is for the sake of a better Syria and a better world. In the US's mind. As we all know, the US mind is deeply biased, bigoted and ignorant on the subject of Assadist Syria.
@96
'Instead it's my reading that the US's purpose has got to be much more well-intentioned in the US's own mind, and the purpose is the replacement of the Assadists with something that is better than the Assadists'
this is strange! who knows whats going on in the minds of the empire...how is it wellintentioned to aid alqaeda? unless the US regime is as badly informed as the masses....my reading is your reading is wrong
Posted by: brian | Jan 31 2014 14:14 utc | 106
@96 bizarre
the concept of sovereignty is taking a battering: by the conjunction of islamic terrorists and US regime change artists: the latter think the former are a better option, and being well intentioned the former are aided by the latter?!but then its all relative ....not even the empire beieves that: it has its interests and sees Assad as standing in the way of those interests...thats all
but please: lets not pretend the US is ever well intentioned...that would entail a stupidity
thatd be monumental
Posted by: brian | Jan 31 2014 14:19 utc | 107
USZ good intentions can be seen at work in Ukraine, Russia and anywhere the good Empire feels in its good heart that change is in the interests of the people of those good countries
why..not to aid the good people of syria by arming the merciful democracy loving rebels is a crime against justice
what bizarre ideas!
Posted by: brian | Jan 31 2014 14:21 utc | 108
@ 96
Instead it's my reading that the US's purpose has got to be much more well-intentioned in the US's own mind
That is a naive assumption to make. All you need to do is look at the think tanks at the beginning of the Syria war talking about how this will break the Resistance Axis and leave Hezbollah without supply lines. Or the cynical statements that this will led to two of Americas enemies (Al Qaeda and Iran's proxies) to wipe each other out. There was no well intentioned meanings in any of this.
Just US Interests.
Posted by: Colm O' Toole | Jan 31 2014 15:42 utc | 109
@ Brian: The USA foreign ministry and Whitehouse require of themselves to act in ways that are well-intentioned in their own minds (according to their own logic and their own information set). They do believe themselves well-intentioned and they do maintain that belief unto themselves in their decision-making reasoning. When you're evaluating the likelihood that the rumour from Reuters is false -- the rumour about the US giving lethal weapons to the rebels in southern Syria -- one of the questions to ask is: would it pass muster among the USA people involved, in their own minds, in terms of their good intentions and their notions of what the effects of the weapons would be. There's nothing bizzare or stupid about asking yourself that question.
Parvizyi, this is absolute fantasy. Nobody in this business is being 'well-intentioned' about anything. And as for the 'moderate' Jihadi training camps in Jordan, they've been there for two years, we know the number of US 'advisers' running the training there (1,500), we have multiple sources for this, and you just aren't paying attention to the gamut of journalism that's out there. You're living in a sort of liberal ideological fantasy world, unbiased by known facts.
Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Jan 31 2014 17:06 utc | 111
whoops, in my last comment (momentarily in the spam hole, but I don't doubt it will reappear), I said 1,500 US 'advisors' in the training camps in Jordan. This was my memory playing tricks, it's 150. The former figure would be a really mammoth operation, fit to train tens of thousands of men.
Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Jan 31 2014 17:12 utc | 112
Even though Kerry pulled out all of the carrots and sticks he could think of to get enough of the interested parties to Geneva II, as it winds down, it does not appear to have accomplished any of Kerry's goals. Even though American MSM is spinning the relative performances of the Syrian government and opposition for an English audience, according to the Angry Arab, the arabic-speaking public were unimpressed, if not embarrassed, by the opposition's showing on their TV screens.
Now, Kerry is trying to convince the parties to attend more talks on February 10. Are the recent American complaints about the Syrian government's chemical compliance part of the pressures that Americans are putting on Assad to send representatives to the next talks?
Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Jan 31 2014 22:09 utc | 113
Posted by: Parviziyi | Jan 31, 2014 10:53:38 AM | 110
It's just another example of Yankees believing, or pretending to believe, their own bullshit, Parviziyi (everyone wants a Nobel Prize for Sincerity ... aka Nobel Peace Prize - or in "Israel's" case, the Nobel Piece Prize).
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 1 2014 2:10 utc | 114
If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel of shit, you have a barrel of shit. And if you put a spoonful of shit in a barrel of wine, you also have a barrel of shit. This is obviously the methodology of foof in regards to this fine blog.
Unfortunately for foof, the analogy is only half correct. He's still playing the role of shit of course, but has turned out in this case to be more like manure on a field - helping to feed a burgeoning plot of excellent, thoughtful posts from which many will come to read and learn. Your poison has been dissipated, foof. From your stinking garbage, plowed under with much effort, comes, eventually, the nutrients for something truly useful.
That said, it's getting pretty pathetic to think of you sitting at home, going through the rigamarole of changing your IP, just so you can come get exposed for your basic idiocy. Again. And again. I'm not sure what you think the point is.
Posted by: guest77 | Feb 1 2014 2:58 utc | 115
"Thats not the subject - the subject is what people in Poland, Czech, Ukraine, BeloRus, Lithuania, Latvia etc etc, thought was worse, communism or nazism."
And here we find the incredibly dense core of sheesh's stupidity. The Poles, the Czechs, the BeloRussians, et al - lovers of naziism? Only from the view inside of your shit-smeared skull, you freak.
Here, here is a movie by and about those great lovers of Naziism, the Belorussians: Come and See
Posted by: guest77 | Feb 1 2014 3:21 utc | 116
These are the real #Syrian people that stand against the evil of the world that wants to destroy a beautiful secular country. With one voice to the world we will not kneel. Rally in the city of #Nabek in support of the #Syrian Arab #Army in its operations against #terrorist groups http://youtu.be/Du60vUsOhfk
Posted by: brian | Feb 2 2014 15:50 utc | 117
The comments to this entry are closed.
@90
Oh i quoted you just fine.
Your claim is that what you call " the alternative" (Communism) to the US (capitalism/gangsterism) "is just as bad"
Deny if you wish but everyone else can see it plain as day, right here on this page.
Posted by: sheesh | Jan 31 2014 3:34 utc | 101