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Fast
& Furious: Libyan Edition
By
streiff
September
12th, 2013
If
you were a big fan of Operation Fast & Furious, that stroke of
genius masterminded by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives which sought to ensnare Mexican drug lords in a violation
of the law (think about that for a second) by letting them buy
weapons in selected states in the American Southwest and use them to
kill their opponents, innocent bystanders, and the occasional U.S.
Border Patrol agent, you are going to love what the Obama
administration has come up with in Syria.
The
CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of
delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama
administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The
shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks,
along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles
and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation
of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.
The
arms shipments, which are limited to light weapons and other
munitions that can be tracked, began arriving in Syria at a moment of
heightened tensions over threats by President Obama to order missile
strikes to punish the regime of Bashar al-Assad for his alleged use
of chemical weapons in a deadly attack near Damascus last month.
The
arms are being delivered as the United States is also shipping new
types of nonlethal gear to rebels. That aid includes vehicles,
sophisticated communications equipment and advanced combat medical
kits.
Like
so much else the administration attempts, their goals seem plausible
if your IQ approaches room temperature of if you are an academic.
The
latest effort to provide aid is aimed at supporting rebel fighters
who are under the command of Gen. Salim Idriss, according to
officials, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because
part of the initiative is covert. Idriss is the commander of the
Supreme Military Council, a faction of the disjointed armed
opposition.
U.S.
officials, speaking about the provision of nonlethal aid, said they
are determined to increase the cohesion and structure of the rebel
fighting units.
“This
doesn’t only lead to a more effective force, but it increases its
ability to hold coalition groups together,” said Mark S. Ward, the
State Department’s senior adviser on assistance to Syria, who
coordinates nonlethal aid to rebels from southern Turkey. “They see
their leadership is having some impact.
So
the scheme is to arm and supply the Syrian resistance nominally under
the command of General Salim Idriss of the Free Syria Army. Clearly
they intend that the FSA will supply other groups of fighters with
weapons and non-lethal aid to enable the FSA to establish leadership
over those groups.
Where
this plan breaks down is on three fronts...
Read the rest of the
article at Redstate
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