Reports: Obama Considers Arming Syrian Rebels

As Other Nations Back Off, US Looks to Escalate

While other nations, notably Britain, have come out of al-Qaeda’s growing influence in Syria’s rebellion with the epiphany that arming these guys is a really bad idea bound to have all sorts of unforeseeable consequences, new reports suggest that President Obama is warming up to the concept.

Reports emerging late last night say that President Obama wants to demonstrate “more aggressive US leadership” in imposing regime change in Syria, and that this could likely end up meaning throwing weapons at whatever guerrilla factions will take them.

Incredibly, this report includes claims that President Obama is “more confident” in Syria’s rebels now, at a time when all the evidence and common sense would suggest that he should be the exact opposite.

Instead, Obama is expected to push forward with a plan of some sort by June, and use the dubious allegations of chemical weapons as an excuse to justify whatever he decides to do. Whether officials will ever go public with their decision one way or the other remains to be seen, as previous efforts to “facilitate” Saudi arms to the rebels were mostly kept quiet in press conferences, and only came out in unofficial statements.

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.