Giving arms to Syrian rebels is a bad idea
“…Not every slope is slippery, but this one looks like a
bobsled run. It was August 2011 whenObama issued a statement declaring that “the time has come for
President Assad to step aside.” Now that the president has put muscle behind
those words, it will be difficult for the United States to accept any other
outcome.
There will be pressure to impose
a no-fly zone to neutralize Assad’s devastating air power. There will be
pressure to contain the war so it does not spill beyond Syria’s borders and
destabilize our allies in Turkey and Jordan, or our sort-of, kind-of allies in
Iraq. There will be pressure to alleviate the immense suffering of the Syrian
people. Perhaps all of this can be accomplished without putting American lives
at risk. I doubt it.
Above all, there will be pressure
to win a proxy war that Obama never wanted to fight. This is how quagmires
begin, with one reluctant step after another toward the yawning abyss. (See:
Vietnam.)
We do sometimes win proxy wars —
in Afghanistan, for example, where the CIA helped the warlords defeat the
mighty Soviet army. In the process, however, we created the chaotic power
vacuum that allowed al-Qaeda to set up shop — and ultimately launch the Sept.
11 attacks.
I hope I’m wrong but fear I’m
right: This will not end well.”
Taliban
talks announced as Afghanistan assumes security
By Kyle Almond. Elise Labott and Joe Sterling, CNN
updated 12:01 PM EDT, Tue
June 18, 2013
“Are the
Afghan troops up to the task?
There are certainly doubts.
A Pentagon review in December
found that only one of 23 Afghan army brigades was capable of functioning on
its own.
Meanwhile, literacy rates are low,
desertion rates are high, and many deserters have joined the
insurgency. There also have been a troubling number of "green-on-blue"
attacks: Afghan troops attacking their American comrades.
But then-Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta spoke positively about the progress Afghans had made in growing their army, reducing
violence and becoming more self-sufficient. At the time, Afghan forces were
leadingnearly 90% of operations across the country.
"We're on the right path to
give (Afghanistan) the opportunity to govern itself," Panetta said…”
Cassi Creek: We find
ourselves trying to win another proxy war before disengaging from the currently
active one. We are faced with the
necessity of declaring an inept, poorly led, poorly trained to be capable of
defending itself against an internal force bent upon conquest and elimination
of that portion of the populace that will not agree to be dominated by ideology.
Imagine the results
of turning over billions of dollars in U.S. military hardware and technology to
an army that will only break it, sell it on the black market, or use it against
remaining U.S. forces. How familiar is
that image? We saw it happen in VietNam
after we declared the ARVN forces capable of self-defense. We saw it happen in Iraq as money and
materials flowed into private accounts and the Iraqi army fought a civil war
that has yet to be decided. We’re seeing
it happen in Afghanistan and the incidence of green on blue attacks will
increase in concert with the Taliban’s grasp of American military
weaponry. The Afghani government wants
anti-aircraft weapons, tanks, helicopters and drones. We should provide them with none of the
above. If we do, they will rapidly
become tools in yet another Afghani civil war.
We have a
pattern of declaring victory where none truly exists that leads back to
VietNam. We should have learned by now
that we would be better served to simply dump all our equipment still in use in
Afghanistan into the ocean before we allow it to be utilized as dues to join the
Taliban. Syria, it is apparent, will
only lead to yet another “Glorious Victory.”
We’ll do our best to convince our public that “we won in _____. We will just have to ignore the battles
taking place in civil and proxy wars.
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