Congress Delaying US Arms to Syrian Rebels

Fears Grow of Arms Ending Up With al-Qaeda

Shortly after President Obama revealed his “plans” to start arming Syrian rebels, Congress began to balk, noting that the plans lacked any real details on how it was supposed to work, or how those arms would be kept away from al-Qaeda.

Two weeks later Congress is said to still be holding up the scheme because the administration still hasn’t addressed the concerns. Officials continue to press Congress to relent, but seem reluctant to address their issues.

That doesn’t seem like an accident, and some familiar with the situation say that the president’s plan was never really all that specific, the issues can’t be addressed because they haven’t planned for them.

The White House has openly expressed hope to start seeing weapons on the ground by the end of the month, but that seems increasingly unlikely as the rebels grow more divided and Congress can’t be convinced to ignore the very real problem of arming al-Qaeda.

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.