Arming the Syrian rebels helps no fewer than three states – Qatar, Turkey and the Islamic State. Despite this, House Speaker John Boehner is signaling that he will sign on to a plan that arms Syrian rebels. The main line of distinction between the FSA and ISIS is that there is almost no difference. FSA represents a wolf in sheep’s increasingly tattered clothing and ISIS represents a wolf in wolf’s clothing. The more that time passes, the more the interchangeable nature of the two groups becomes apparent. After all, beheaded Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff were both allegedly handed over to ISIS by FSA affiliated groups.
Boehner: Supports helping ISIS.
Yet, Boehner wants to arm Syria’s FSA / ISIS rebel hybrid. Ironically, the argument Boehner is making is that ISIS must be defeated and arming the rebels is really the only option. In reality, arming the rebels is like writing a prescription for gasoline to be thrown onto a fire. In a sane world, arming Assad would be a better option but that would anger the two other terror states – Qatar and Turkey.
Screenshot of U.S. State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
People will shout, ‘What about Iran and Syria? Both of them are officially designated State Sponsors of Terrorism. At least as deserving, neither Qatar nor Turkey seem to be able to get on the list.
Via the Washington Times:
House Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday reiterated his support for President Obama’s request to arm and train Syrian rebels but said there’s more to be done to ultimately destroy the Islamic State terrorist group.
“I frankly think the president’s request is a sound one. I think there’s a lot more that we need to be doing, but there’s no reason for us not to do what the president asked us to do,” the Ohio Republican said.
The House is in the midst of prepping language on measures to fund the government past Sept. 30 and to equip and train a faction of Syrian rebels battling the Assad regime, the Islamic State and other Islamic militants.
Mr. Boehner added that if the ultimate goal is to destroy the terrorist group, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, “we’ve got to do more than train a few folks in Syria and train a few folks in Iraq and dropping bombs.”
The way to do more in this instance is addition by subtraction. If there is no strategy for defeating ISIS outright, arming an incestuous sister group isn’t the answer; that’s called exacerbating the problem.
As Walid said, Obama’s plan is to:
“Aid Moderates” Who Want To “Kill Bashar” Who Is Already Trying To “Kill ISIS” And Lets Hope That Bashar’s “Moderate” Killers In The End “Kills ISIS”.
Geniuses in Washington Forgetting Enemy has a Vote
As the New York Times recently reported, Qatar is seeking influence with its contributions to the Brookings Institute, a prominent liberal Washington, DC think tank. Again, the Qatari agenda does indeed involve support for the Syrian rebels. The extent to which Qatari dollars going to Brookings help that agenda is unclear but favorable reports about Qatar from Brookings would certainly provide some cover from political flak inside the beltway.
There is no evidence of any similar arrangement between Qatar and Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), widely regarded as a more conservative think tank in DC. However, when it comes to Syria, many of FDD’s most senior voices have been espousing views that align with the agendas of Qatar and Turkey, which involves helping ISIS in Syria.
Consider a letter submitted to Barack Obama on July 30, 2012 that called for U.S. intervention in Syria:
The letter was organized jointly by the Foreign Policy Initiative and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, both conservative policy organizations in Washington, D.C. Signees included Max Boot, Paul Bremer, Elizabeth Cheney, Eric Edelman, Jamie Fly, John Hannah, William Inboden, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Clifford May, Robert McFarlane, Martin Peretz, Danielle Pletka, John Podhoretz, Stephen Rademaker, Karl Rove, Randy Scheunemann, Dan Senor, James Woolsey, Dov Zakheim, and Radwan Ziadeh, a member of the Syrian National Council.
If there is one person on that signatory list that could be most interested in helping to further a Qatari agenda, it might just be Robert McFarlane. As Shoebat.com reported, McFarlane signed a $1.4 Million deal with Qatar in 2009. The details of the deal are not fully known but evidence suggests that McFarlane was to help with negotiations to get Sudan off the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
Another signatory – James Woolsey – is interesting, especially in light of his comments in 2006:
Less than two months after that July 30th letter, the attacks in Benghazi took place. One hour prior to the attacks, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens wrapped up a meeting with Turkey’s Consul General Ali Sait Akin. It has also been reported by credible sources that Qatar was a major player and financier relative to the weapons trafficking operation being run out of Benghazi and onto the Syrian rebels through Turkey.
Less than one year later, a chemical attack occurred in Syrian and was quickly blamed on the Assad regime. Less than two months prior to that attack, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood regime was overthrown, which was a serious blow to both Qatar and Turkey. By extension, it was a blow to the Obama administration and anyone else who wanted to support Syria’s rebels.
After the August 21st chemical attack, a similar letter was drafted and sent to Barack Obama. It called for more forceful action against the Assad regime. It contained many of the same signatories. There were two noteworthy omissions – McFarlane and Woolsey.
Assuming these prominent politicians and policymakers aren’t financially beholden to Qatar or Turkey, the only other conclusion to draw is that they have forgotten that the enemy always has a vote. In this case, it’s casting a vote for more weapons and the Speaker of the U.S. House appears ready to honor it.
The enemy can be found in three states – Turkey, Qatar and the Islamic State.
Boehner is advocating that the U.S. help all three.