Obama Authorizes War on Assad, Congress AWOL

[drbrumley]

Obama Authorizes War on Assad, Congress AWOL

When the first group of US-trained fighters were inserted into Syria on Friday, Washington experienced a great shock. Tasked with fighting alongside al-Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, the Nusra Front, Washington’s newest proxy army in Syria was expected be welcomed by the group. Instead, Washington’s proxies, known as Division 30, were attacked by the Nusra Front with several fighters taken hostage. Quoting a senior Obama Administration official, the New York Times reported that Washington “expected the Nusra Front to welcome Division 30 as an ally in its fight against the Islamic State.”

Said another US official: “This wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

Let’s pause for a moment and think about US strategy in Syria. Fourteen years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is official Washington policy to create armed and trained al-Qaeda allies in Syria. Yes, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

The attack on Washington’s proxy army shocked Washington’s “experts,” but it did not shock them enough to re-think the four year long effort to oust Syrian President Assad. It was this effort, of course, which created the atmosphere in which ISIS has over-run much of the country and threatens to take the rest of it as well. There was no ISIS in Syria before the US decided on regime change. This is similar to Iraq, where it was only the US invasion that produced a working al-Qaeda presence in the country. There was no al-Qaeda in Iraq prior to the US “liberation.”

But as according to past practices in Washington, when a particular foreign policy produces results counter to stated goals it not time to re-think the strategy but to double-down.

Therefore, as the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, President Obama has for the first time authorized the US military to attack Syrian government forces if they threaten Washington’s regime change army. The battle has been joined.

While it has been expected that Turkey’s opening up Incirlik airbase to US jets attacking ISIS in Syria signaled a move toward a “no-fly zone” in a small part of northern Syria, President Obama has upped the ante considerably and declared that the Syrian military is a fair target wherever it roams inside the country.

This move is a declaration of war on Syria, while Congress continues to be completely uninterested in its Constitutional obligations. Indeed in this new war it is Congress that is AWOL.

:sigh: Here we go again....Jan. of 2017 can't get here fast enough.

 

[drbrumley]

Why are we not blasting al Queda to kingdom come?

US-Trained Syrian Rebels Routed by al-Qaeda, Flee Into Kurdish Territory Al-Qaeda Rules Out Working With US-Backed Groups by Jason Ditz, August 02, 2015 In the past week, reports have emerged of al-Qaeda’s Syrian faction, Jabhat al-Nusra, capturing a number of top members of the US-trained “Division 30,” also known as the “New Syrian Force.” The group is now reported to have been routed outright from its headquarters in northern Syria, and had to flee into Kurdish territory. Reports have varied on how many of the NSF fighters al-Qaeda has captured and killed, with early reports suggesting it could be as many as 18. That’s a lot, since the US only managed to train 54 of them in the long-term effort. More may have been killed in the recent fighting too. Al-Qaeda is saying that’s going to be a continuing issue, as they have no intention of working with any US-backed groups, and will resist all “agents of America.” Since the US began targeting them in airstrikes last year, al-Qaeda has gone after several rebel factions it has perceived as pro-US. Though the US is said to be assuring the NSF of air support in any fights they get into with the Assad government, as well as envisioning them as a prominent part of their anti-ISIS strategy, it isn’t clear this force can even safely travel around Syria, let alone have any real impact in the ongoing civil war. http://www.startribune.com/syrian-rebel-group-leaves-their-hq-after-clash-with-al-qaida/320374521/ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=xr3EkO7QfAEbYpAoEBOiMQ&bvm=bv.99261572,d.eXY