General Discussion

cali

(114,904 posts) Thu Aug 2, 2012, 05:29 AM Aug 2012

Obama signs order supporting Syria's rebels, reports say [View all]

Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorising US support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence finding broadly permits the CIA and other US agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.

This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad's armed opponents – a shift that intensified following last month's failure of the UN security council to agree on tougher sanctions against the Damascus government.

The White House is for now apparently stopping short of giving the rebels lethal weapons, even as some US allies do just that.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/02/obama-order-supporting-syria-rebels?newsfeed=true

30 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Obama signs order supporting Syria's rebels, reports say [View all] cali Aug 2012 OP

Oh, great. U.S. Intervention in another foreign mess. Zalatix Aug 2012 #1

bad. fucking bad. cali Aug 2012 #2

After a while you get to see the whole pattern repeating itself... indie9197 Aug 2012 #3

I still can't see how the far left thinks that the people of the Middle East UnrepentantLiberal Aug 2012 #4

you have a naive and child like understanding of the situation Douglas Carpenter Aug 2012 #7

Did someone take a poll of the people of Syria? UnrepentantLiberal Aug 2012 #11

no and that is the point. It is naive to imagine that Syrians are all of one mind. They are deeply Douglas Carpenter Aug 2012 #12

no reliable poll that is for sure and that is the point. It is no more true that the Syrian "people" Douglas Carpenter Aug 2012 #13

It appears that minority groups will be executed first by the "freedom fighters" indie9197 Aug 2012 #14

Liberals arguing that the U.S. should give weapons to Syrian rebels underestimate Assad's power Douglas Carpenter Aug 2012 #5

Look, for the last 50 years or so, we have supported the strongmen in the middle east... WCGreen Aug 2012 #6

What is so great about the 21st century? indie9197 Aug 2012 #8

There is more citizen participation than there was in the 20th century... WCGreen Aug 2012 #17

I think we are talking about different countries here indie9197 Aug 2012 #21

Your right. WCGreen Aug 2012 #27

the US has the people's best interests in mind? oh, please. HiPointDem Aug 2012 #9

Then why would we be supporting the rebels. WCGreen Aug 2012 #18

you can't be serious. first, who are the fucking 'rebels'? have you looked into it? HiPointDem Aug 2012 #22

So we should do nothing and let it all go to hell... WCGreen Aug 2012 #26

do nothing about *what*? there are people dying all over the world -- 6 million died in the wars HiPointDem Aug 2012 #28

One thing you forget about Africa is we have no staging ground to deploy troops from.... WCGreen Aug 2012 #30

do you think the Saudis who are by far the biggest supporters of the opposition have the best Douglas Carpenter Aug 2012 #10

Tell me that getting Assad and his cronies out of Damascus wouldn't be better for Israel WCGreen Aug 2012 #19

There is no reason to believe that Sunni dominated militias running the country would be better for Douglas Carpenter Aug 2012 #24

It's got to be better than it is now.... WCGreen Aug 2012 #25

Of course the CIA is being authorized to seek to depose Assad... and the explanation is simple LooseWilly Aug 2012 #15

+1. the best i can figure, all our official enemies are those who try to maintain some semblance HiPointDem Aug 2012 #16

Follow the money... LooseWilly Aug 2012 #23

Based on their track record the US will never run out of enemies indie9197 Aug 2012 #20

And, given the probability of blowback from this, the US will never run out of 9/11s. leveymg Aug 2012 #29