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Purveyor

(29,876 posts) Thu May 29, 2014, 01:04 PM May 2014

Syria to Be Solved Internally Not by U.S. Action: Obama

Source: Bloomberg

By Angela Greiling Keane May 29, 2014 12:00 AM ET

The conflict in Syria will be solved only by the groups within the that country, not by U.S. military involvement, President Barack Obama told NPR News in an interview.

Obama spoke about empowering Syrian moderate opposition following a commencement speech yesterday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he laid out his foreign policy goals for the final years of his presidency.

“I still do not believe that American military actions can resolve what is increasingly a sectarian civil war,” Obama said in the interview scheduled to air today. “Ultimately, the only way you’re going to get a resolution that works for the Syrian people and the region is going to -- is going to require some sort of political accommodation between the various groups there.”

The White House yesterday said it will ask Congress for $5 billion for an anti-terrorism fund to train other countries in a supplemental budget request for the Defense Department.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-29/syria-to-be-solved-internally-not-by-u-s-action-obama.html

9 replies

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Syria to Be Solved Internally Not by U.S. Action: Obama (Original Post) Purveyor May 2014 OP

Then why are we arming and funding Syrian rebels? Maedhros May 2014 #1

Kills me that they don't remember binLaden and Afghanistan. lark May 2014 #2

Nor does anyone seem to remember the Contra rebels armed by Reagan Maedhros May 2014 #3

But it does not count as "US military action" which is what Obama said would not happen. pampango May 2014 #4

Fighting wars by proxy is just as ugly as doing it ourselves. Maedhros May 2014 #7

Leaving Syrian civilians to the tender mercies of Bashar al Assad and/or the terrorists is "action" pampango May 2014 #8

What about the death squads in Bahrain? Maedhros May 2014 #9

he said "military actions" and no technically giving weapons geek tragedy May 2014 #5

Who trains them outside of Syria in Jordan and Qatar ? jakeXT May 2014 #6

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)

1. Then why are we arming and funding Syrian rebels?

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:13 PM

May 2014

That counts as "U.S. action," Mr. President.

lark

(23,105 posts)

2. Kills me that they don't remember binLaden and Afghanistan.

Reply to Maedhros (Reply #1)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:20 PM

May 2014

They seem so determined to make the same mistake over again. Can see why Repugs want this as they are all war all the time, but think Obama is making a big mistake in not learning the lessons from our history.

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)

3. Nor does anyone seem to remember the Contra rebels armed by Reagan

Reply to lark (Reply #2)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:23 PM

May 2014

when we are using the same strategy now in Syria and all over Africa.

pampango

(24,692 posts)

4. But it does not count as "US military action" which is what Obama said would not happen.

Reply to Maedhros (Reply #1)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:32 PM

May 2014

How can anyone "empower Syrian moderate opposition"? Is all opposition to Assad now terrorists? At this point is it a choice between Assad and the terrorists (Bashar's version of Bush's infamous "You are with us or you are with the terrorists.&quot ?

Obama seems to believe that there is another choice than the "black or white" - Assad or the terrorists choice. Perhaps he should push for self-determination for Syria's Sunni Muslims who represent 70% of Syria's population. That idea seemed to work for ethnic Russians in Crimea.

My reading of his speech is not that the US will never take any action anywhere. Indeed he said the US would lead just not with its military. "Just because you have the best hammer in the world does not mean that every problem is a nail."

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)

7. Fighting wars by proxy is just as ugly as doing it ourselves.

Reply to pampango (Reply #4)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:58 PM

May 2014

Remember death squads in El Salvador?

pampango

(24,692 posts)

8. Leaving Syrian civilians to the tender mercies of Bashar al Assad and/or the terrorists is "action"

Reply to Maedhros (Reply #7)

Thu May 29, 2014, 02:05 PM

May 2014

too. If Obama funds death squads in Syria then he is not better than Reagan.

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)

9. What about the death squads in Bahrain?

Reply to pampango (Reply #8)

Thu May 29, 2014, 02:56 PM

May 2014

http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-arms-sales-bahrain-crackdown

Despite Bahrain’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the U.S. has continued to provide weapons and maintenance to the small Mideast nation.

Defense Department documents released to ProPublica give the fullest picture yet of the arms sales: The list includes ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Blackhawk helicopters, and an unidentified missile system.

The way we pick and choose which atrocities demand our intervention (Syria, Nigeria), and which don't (East Timor, Rwanda, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia), puts the lie to the Government's crocodile tears over human suffering. They cynically use this suffering to justify intervention for their own imperial designs.

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)

5. he said "military actions" and no technically giving weapons

Reply to Maedhros (Reply #1)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:38 PM

May 2014

to other people so they can use them is not a military action

jakeXT

(10,575 posts)

6. Who trains them outside of Syria in Jordan and Qatar ?

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Thu May 29, 2014, 01:54 PM

May 2014

So no military involvement, all US intelligence like CIA ?

Officials said the operation is being run by U.S. intelligence. But those in Washington stressed that the U.S. was only providing nonlethal aid at this point, stopping short of a step that is being increasingly advocated by lawmakers in Congress but which the Obama administration opposes.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-training-syrian-moderates-jordan-officials

The commander of the unit also told Ali that their American contacts had asked him to bring 80 to 90 members of his unit to Ankara for training. Once in Ankara, after a 14-hour drive from Syria, they were interrogated for days about their political leanings and their unit’s fighting history. The commander told Ali that their questioners identified themselves as belonging to “the military,” but that he believed they were from the CIA.

On the final day, they were told that they would be flown the next day to a training camp in Qatar, a monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Then they were transported to a training facility they believed was near the border with Saudi Arabia.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/syria-arming-the-rebels/syrian-rebels-describe-u-s-backed-training-in-qatar/

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