US Congress Signs Off on Arming Syrian Rebels

Rep. Rogers: Obama Free to Send Arms to Rebel Factions

After several weeks of delays, Rep. Mike Rogers (R – MI) reported that Congress has abandoned its opposition to President Obama’s plan to arm Syrian rebels, and says that the president is free to “move forward.”

Congressional concerns centered around the plan’s lack of specificity about who would get the arms, and how the administration intends to keep those arms out of the hands of al-Qaeda, which is increasingly dominant among rebel factions.

The public has no more clue about the answers today than we did when the president first announced his intentions, though several secret sessions of the House Intelligence Committee have been held on the matter.

Still, several in Congress reiterated their opposition to the plan, saying they don’t believe the arms are going to have a positive impact on the civil war, and that al-Qaeda will definitely be a beneficiary of the US largesse. That suggests the secret sessions haven’t so much erased the doubts as simply placated enough well-positioned Congressmen to go ahead with the plan, no matter how bad an idea it is.

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.