Monday, March 11, 2013

Another Mistake In The Making - U.S. Training Islamist Syrian Rebels In Jordan

The German publication Der Spiegel has reported that American military advisers are training Syrian Islamist rebels in Jordan.

As I revealed previously, the U.S. has had boots on the ground for some time in Jordan. And our new Secretary of State John Kerry has already admitted that the U.S. was going to be providing what was described as 'non-lethal aid' and $60 million is cash to the rebels.

But as Der Spiegel revealed, we're also providing weapons training - while the Saudis and Qatar are supplying the weapons...which I guarantee you are mainly purchased or given to them by the Obama Administration.

Some 200 men have already received such training over the past three months and there are plans in the future to provide training for a total 1,200 members of the "Free Syrian Army" in two camps in the south and the east of the country.

Britain's Guardian newspaper also reported that U.S. trainers were assisting Syrian rebels in Jordan. British and French instructors were also participating in the U.S.-led effort, the Guardian said on Saturday, citing Jordanian security sources.

Jordanian intelligence services are involved in the program, which aims to build around a dozen units totaling some 10,000 fighters to the exclusion of radical Islamists, Spiegel reported.


The silliest assumption is that this is going to 'exclude radical Islamists' no matter what anyone says.The Free Syrian Army, the main rebel group is dominated by these Islamists. So is the the Syrian National Council(SNC) and the Obama's new group of 'moderates', the Syrian Opposition Coalition,(SOC)and the associated Joint Military Council.What we are doing here, just as we did in Egypt and Libya is arming and training a Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist army.There will be no exclusion of 'radical Islamists'. Trust me on that.

And even if the fighters we're arming and training weren't hard line Sunni Islamists (a wild stretch of the imagination)only somebody as clueless as Secretary of State Kerry would believe that they aren't going to take their weapons and training knowledge back home to Syria with them to train and arm others.

If they happen to win out over Assad, what exactly does the Obama Administration think is going to happen to that chemical weapons stockpile the Assad regime has on hand? Does anyone think the victorious rebels are going to just hand it over peacefully? Does anyone in Washington actually think an Islamist Syria is going to be our 'ally', any more than Islamist Egypt is? AT best, we may be able to buy a little cooperation in certain matters for a limited time before it all backfires on us.

Even worse, a Muslim Brotherhood regime in Syria is going to be a major threat to the current U.S. client state of Jordan. The Islamists are already well entrenched, there is a tribal factor involved and the Obama Administration, knowingly or unknowingly is setting the stage for an Islamist caliphate stretching from Libya to Syria, some Muslim Brotherhood sounder Hasan al-Banna only dreamed about in the 1920's.

The Obama Administration is handing it to them on a silver platter...and paying for the party as well.

This is beyond folly.

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