Syria Rebels: US Arms May Be ‘Too Late’

Commanders Say Weapons Needed by 'End of the Week'

The US announcement that they plan to arm Syria’s rebels and the subsequent “Friends of Syria” statement promising heavy arms to them haven’t led to dramatic influx of new weapons, and they have the rebels following up with more predictions of doom and gloom.

Rebels are now saying that if huge amounts of heavy weapons aren’t in their hands by the end of the week it’ll be “too late,” and the whole southern front of the civil war will be totally lost.

That’s a hugely pessimistic assessment, as territory rarely exchanges hands dramatically in Syria except at the end of multi-week clashes. Rather, Syrian rebels usually predict worst-case scenarios to try to spur more weapons.

Still, getting the arms into rebel hands is a long, complicated task, and the idea that the US is ready to have anything done by the end of the week is just silly, meaning the rebels’ predictions of defeat will simply come and go with no response.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.