Congress Wants More Details Before Funding Syria Rebels

Secret Briefings Lack Specifics on Plan

Though plenty of “closed-door” meetings have taken place on arming the Syrian rebels since President Obama announced that he will, in fact, be arming the Syrian rebels, the administration still doesn’t seem to have a clear plan on how it will work.

That’s the complaint coming out of Congress, which is expected to sign off on the scheme but has questions on how it actually is going to work, and how the administration plans to not arm al-Qaeda when they are the rebels’ frontline fighters.

The “endgame” is also a big question here, as arming the rebels seems to be the beginning and the end of the plan, such as it is. That’ll satisfy Congressmen who want escalation at all costs, but others are concerns that this is just going to drag the US into an open-ended commitment.

The rebels are pushing the US to hurry up with the weapons, but the lack of serious planning on how the arms would be sent, or to what end, is likely to stall it for quite some time.

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.