JimofPennsylvan
Platinum Member
- Jun 6, 2007
- 862
- 506
President Obama and Secretary Kerry deserve a lot of credit for assembling the coalition they have and getting this effort underway with its strikes in Syria. However, their strategy needs tweaking. President Obama's team running the coalition's efforts is making the mistake of trying to avoid the existing and foreseeable public criticism of their Syria effort instead of just leading American public opinion on this matter, the Whitehouse and the Pentagon should stomp around in a heavy footed matter with the right views on what needs to be done on Syria thereby making them popular. Specifically, the administration has made the huge mistake of bombing al Nusra Front forces in Syria, the White House to defend themselves would say that al Nusra is an affiliate of al qaedae the group responsible for 9-11 that wants to do more 9-11 attacks and bring down America so America doesn't want to degrade and drive back ISIL in Syria just to have them replaced with al Nusra, so they bombed al Nusra. The right position on this issue and the one the administration should have come up with from listening to the Sunni Syrian people and doing the right thing is that it is not clear at all that al Nusra is an international terrorist group the actual truth is more like al Nusra in Syria is a sunni freedom fighter group one which ordinary Sunni Syrians view as their champions a group that when the international community could not or would not save the Sunni Syrian people from subjugation from the Assad regime this group the al Nusra front did save them so this group has earned their loyalty. To this end, the coalition should stop the bombing of al Nusra but continue to focus on hitting ISIL forces major build-up areas in Syria and also focus on bombing ISIL forces on the front line areas of the Free Syrian Army, FSA, so they can take ISIL territory. It very well may be the case that as the FSA has battlefield successes and its political wing gains in stature and becomes a real alternative to the Assad regime meaning getting leverage at the peace table and can offer a democratic non-police state to the Syrian people that many of the units in the five to six thousand member al Nusra front come out publicly and say we reject the ultra-orthodox view of Islam espoused by al qaedae and its medieval culture that it offers Muslims and we join the FSA and support its political wing. This is not to say that the administration shouldn't have a big exception for the Khorasan group which is a cell in al Nusra comprised of a network of hardcore terrorists bent on international terrorism, they should be treated like other such leaders of international terrorism and be on the U.S. top priority target list to be killed.
One thing that is very dismaying for the American people to see and hear but probably is understandable because the Syrian people have suffered so over the last three years at the hands of the Assad regime is all this criticism and lack of appreciation amongst ordinary Syrians over the America's coalition bombing in Syria over the last two weeks all this criticism for America not bombing Assad's forces and for a small number of civilian casualties. It makes one want to say to all these critical Syrians you want America to go home and leave you to the ISIL barbarians that will kill and abuse you and that will turn your country into something one would see in a science fiction movie that depicts a hellish world. What America probably needs to do is to conduct a radio, air-wave and internet campaign to the Syrian people explaining America's side in this whole matter to gain Syrian popular support for the coalition's efforts. The campaign should explain that the Assad regime is still the sovereign government of Syria recognized by international law that America cannot intentionally attack Assad's military forces because it would be an act of War and a violation of international law moreover the American government must comply with its own nation's law and it does not have legal authority to attack the Syrian government's forces it is currently operating in Syria under a law that arose out of the 9-11 incident which gives the U.S. president the authority to use military force against the terrorist responsible for 9-11 which was al qaedae and ISIL is an off-shoot of al qaedae.
The administration military strategy on Syria also seems to be missing an opportunity. This plodding bureaucratic approach that the US army is going to train five-thousand moderate Syrian rebels a year in Saudi Arabia and send them back to Syria and this will bring about a permanent defeat of ISIL and bring the Assad regime to the peace table and negotiate his departure and create a democratic and good Syria can everybody say long shot. U.S. CIA operatives have had relationships with the Free Syrian Army and its political wing for three plus years now and officials in the FSA are and have been pulling out their hair saying that the Military Operations Command, the U.S. and their allies military aid facility for Syrian rebels, have only been giving the FSA light arms to stay alive their frustrated beyond belief with the American government's prescription of wait for the Saudi Arabia training program. Why doesn't the administration just grant these FSA officials, it knows well, reasonable requests for offensive weapons like anti-tank weapons, mortar weapons and artillery guns so they can take the fight to ISIL and the Assad regime!
One thing that is very dismaying for the American people to see and hear but probably is understandable because the Syrian people have suffered so over the last three years at the hands of the Assad regime is all this criticism and lack of appreciation amongst ordinary Syrians over the America's coalition bombing in Syria over the last two weeks all this criticism for America not bombing Assad's forces and for a small number of civilian casualties. It makes one want to say to all these critical Syrians you want America to go home and leave you to the ISIL barbarians that will kill and abuse you and that will turn your country into something one would see in a science fiction movie that depicts a hellish world. What America probably needs to do is to conduct a radio, air-wave and internet campaign to the Syrian people explaining America's side in this whole matter to gain Syrian popular support for the coalition's efforts. The campaign should explain that the Assad regime is still the sovereign government of Syria recognized by international law that America cannot intentionally attack Assad's military forces because it would be an act of War and a violation of international law moreover the American government must comply with its own nation's law and it does not have legal authority to attack the Syrian government's forces it is currently operating in Syria under a law that arose out of the 9-11 incident which gives the U.S. president the authority to use military force against the terrorist responsible for 9-11 which was al qaedae and ISIL is an off-shoot of al qaedae.
The administration military strategy on Syria also seems to be missing an opportunity. This plodding bureaucratic approach that the US army is going to train five-thousand moderate Syrian rebels a year in Saudi Arabia and send them back to Syria and this will bring about a permanent defeat of ISIL and bring the Assad regime to the peace table and negotiate his departure and create a democratic and good Syria can everybody say long shot. U.S. CIA operatives have had relationships with the Free Syrian Army and its political wing for three plus years now and officials in the FSA are and have been pulling out their hair saying that the Military Operations Command, the U.S. and their allies military aid facility for Syrian rebels, have only been giving the FSA light arms to stay alive their frustrated beyond belief with the American government's prescription of wait for the Saudi Arabia training program. Why doesn't the administration just grant these FSA officials, it knows well, reasonable requests for offensive weapons like anti-tank weapons, mortar weapons and artillery guns so they can take the fight to ISIL and the Assad regime!
