So much for training Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State

Syrian rebels

Oops, there goes one aspect the president’s declaration of whatever declared on the Islamic State, which claims to have established a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

Obama said Wednesday:

“Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition.  Tonight, I call on Congress again to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters.  In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its own people — a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost.  Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria’s crisis once and for all.”

The Hill is now reporting that those Syrian rebels and the Islamic State struck a cease-fire deal today, agreeing to a non-aggression pact in which they promise not to attack each other.

The website noted that this development puts a damper on that call for Congress to authorize money to train and equip rebel groups. You think?

 

The logic of President Barack Hussein Obama … or not

Obama with Ukraine prime minister. (AP photo)

Let’s review.

Obama says the United States will “completely reject” the results of a vote by the people of the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula on whether to join Russia.

This is the same president who supported rioting street mobs in Libya, Egypt and Syria.

Obama said he intervened in Libya to prevent a slaughter of civilians that hadn’t happened yet.

Of the overthrow of the Egyptian government by force, Obama said, “The people of Egypt have spoken [and] their voices have been heard.”

Obama authorized sending arms to Syrian rebels, many of whom are affiliated with al-Qaida.

But a nice, quiet plebiscite he completely rejects. Will he completely reject the results in November if Republicans win control of the Senate?

Duck!

 

 

 

Foreign policy or satire: Hard to tell

A major U.S. newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, actually reported the following as straight news and not satire …

One U.S. official who has been briefed on the options on Syria said he believed the White House would seek a level of intensity “just muscular enough not to get mocked” but not so devastating that it would prompt a response from Syrian allies Iran and Russia.

“They are looking at what is just enough to mean something, just enough to be more than symbolic,” he said.

That is now our official foreign policy — avoid mockery, which is the surest possible way to invite mockery.