Ganging Agley in Syria

As should be surprising to no one other than those who either a) are completely in thrall to the Obama Administration or b) just fell off the turnip truck, supporting the “moderate rebels” in Syria is not working out quite the way the Administration has billed it:

US-trained rebels in Syria have defied their Pentagon-funded programme by pledging to fight against Assad regime troops.
Division 30, the first rebel faction to incorporate graduates of a US-led training programme, released a statement on Tuesday in which it promised to fight Syrian president Bashar al-Assad – something Washington had tried to prevent.
“The Division was formed from the honourable sons of Syria to help rid their country of Assad gangs and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil),” read the statement.

unless, of course, the entire thing isn’t a cover story for arming Al Qaeda. I don’t think the Obama Administration is feckless enough to do that. Let’s summarize what happened:

  1. We train and arm “moderate Syrian rebels”.
  2. As soon as they’re turned loose they surrender their arms to Jabhat al-Nusra.

There’s lots of commentary on this story over at Pat Lang’s place.


But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

5 comments… add one
  • steve Link

    This doesn’t seem a whole lot different, in many ways, than what we went through in Iraq and are still going through in Afghanistan. We don’t understand the people, language, culture or politics. We keep choosing the wrong people to work with or against. We should have as little to do with the place as possible.

    Steve

  • ... Link

    “Smart” “people” on steve’s side told me Obama knew what he was doing. In fact, they told me his strategy was working beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

    Ezra Klein Verified account
    ‏@ezraklein

    I can’t believe the White House’s strategy on Syria is working out this well. I doubt they can, either.

    11:45 AM – 10 Sep 2013

    I wonder what happened?

  • ... Link

    Perhaps Ezra was getting some of that doctored intel….

  • Yes, there is no policy so stupid that it can’t be remediated by being repeated again and again by different people.

  • TastyBits Link

    Col. Lang has a good post on the US and Russia concerning Syria:

    The US and Russia will be allied against the jihadis

    He has a good post today (09-23-2015), but the spam filter will flag the link. “My Opinion on Syrian and Turkish Developments”

    I am amazed at the mental gymnastics the delusionists must perform to maintain their delusions. What I call the “good terrorists”, he has termed the “moderate Islamist”, but what is truly frightening is that they really believe that such an animal exists.

    Furthermore, a few mental flips is all it takes to transform Syria from an authoritarian government into a democratic republic. In today’s post, Col. Lang points out how Saudi Arabia is trying to assist Turkey to move in the opposite direction, and for the delusionists on the Right, President Obama is not helping to my knowledge.

    The natural progression is from freedom to less freedom. The truth is that people yearn for less freedom today than they had yesterday. Authoritarian government is not an accident. It is the natural order.

    Syria with Assad will not burst into a Jeffersonian democracy is beyond insanity. Whoever can bring order will rule Syria, and it is highly doubtful that the US or Europe will do what is required to ensure order.

    Iraq was “lost” because President Bush, and Republicans refused to do what was required, but the US public and Democrats would never have condoned it. Order in chaotic places requires swift, certain, and just unjust violence, yes unjust. In chaos, unjust chaos is merely another manifestation of chaos, and once you are assimilated to chaos, it is all the same.

    (I think I had more, but I am in the middle of a minor crisis with one of my dogs.)

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