Though last month he dismissed the whole strategy as a “fantasy,” President Obama has long been bullish on the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the mostly secular rebel faction that they’ve been bankrolling for years in an effort to foster regime change in Syria.
The FSA is irked, however, that they’ve found themselves on the outside looking in as the US begins planning for an escalation of their new ISIS war into Syria. They figured they were in for a bunch of new aid, but they’re not even in the planning meetings.
FSA leaders claim they’ve been marginalized, as the US aid is sent directly to its various fighters without going through the FSA chain of command. The US has responded that the FSA leaders don’t have a good working relationship with them, and that’s why they’re no longer part of the equation.
US disillusionment with the FSA dates back to last December, when the Islamic Front routed the FSA leadership, chased their commander into Turkey, and seized several warehouses full of US-provided aid.
Despite some very public ties between the Islamic Front and al-Qaeda, the US has since been trying to portray the group as the “moderate Islamists” of Syria, and has been arming some of them as well.
The FSA never proved itself a viable opponent for the Syrian military, and often relied on Islamist factions to do the heavy lifting in battle. In that regard, it’s unsurprising that the US isn’t putting its eggs in that particular basket.
FSA is a fanasy that does not exist. The groups that worked under its umbrella were typical, Salafi groups, and they like Islamic Front, and Al-Nusra, are nothing else, but part of ISIS or ISIL. The only difference in the name is the extent of ambition — that is, only Iraq and Sirija (ISIS), or Iraq and Levant (Syria and Lebanon). And their fancy web sites — how is it possbile with all the capabilities of NSA, and other world-wide operational might of US, we cannot even disrupt them! These attrocious and monsterous head-chopping pornography, needs to be taken off by all countries in the world. Instead, our press is giving them propaganda, by praising the professional quality! Really. And whoever FSA is, they know that all the money, arms, vehicles and gas — went into ISIS. So, what is the surprise?
President Obama will never admit he made a huge mistake in backing the FSA against the secular Assad. After all, he did foolishly say that Assad must go and that his "red line" had been crossed. If he had not intervened, surely Assad's forces would have defeated the insurrection long ago and ISIS may not have grown into the monster that it is today.
I doubt it was a mistake; in fact, even when the so-called FSA were the much-vaunted 'rebel' faction, Obama always seemed to stop short of arming them to the teeth.
Much like with Iraq, pre- and post-Saddam, and now with ISIL, the plan with Syria was — and is — ongoing destabilization, a policy entirely consistent with the Allon Plan and PNAC.
The main benefactors of this destabilization campaign are the Gulf states (and particularly Saudi Arabia), Israel, and America's military-industrial complex.
The FSA was a West created and oil sheik funded hoax from the start. It was a cover to deceive the American public about the rebellion was about and the idea to overthrow Asad. The rise of jihadists, the return of al-Qaeda and its affiliates and now ISIS were all because of Washington's regime change policy in Syria. DC and the foreign policy experts have brought one more disaster. If you want to hinder Islamic radicals, cut off the money supply–that is Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait etc. But then they are our allies (?).
Perhaps the reticence to fund and arm the "mostly secular rebel faction" is because despite what McCrazy and Grahamcrackers keep insisting, there are NO "moderate" insurgents. NONE. This is a religious conflict that has been stewing for a thousand years finally cut loose courtesy of the wackos at Bushco and their "spreading democracy" and "regime change" fantasies.
Maybe Obama has finally got something right and has seen that arming and funding any kind of religious insurgent is not in the best interest of the US…ever.