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Obama To Allow "Moderate" Syrian Rebels Call In B-1B Bombers For Air Support
While Obama desperately tries to stick to his now crushed "Nobel peace prize winner" image, by not succumbing to an all-out land war in the one nation where his progressive "pacifism" brought him fame (and according to some, the presidency), namely Iraq, the rest of militant, "interventionist" US foreign policy is rapidly starting to resemble that waged by the most brutally rabid, neo-con Republican leader. Case in point an absolute stunner reported minutes ago by the WSJ, according to which the White House has decided to provide pickup trucks equipped with mounted machine guns and radios for calling in U.S. airstrikes to some moderate Syrian rebels aided by American B-1B bombers!
According to the WSJ, the planes would drop 500- and 2,000-pound guided bombs, a typical load for the B-1s that have operated in Afghanistan as well as Syria. Using the B-1’s sniper pod, which allows the aircrew to precisely target moving objects, the crew could target tanks, motorcycles and other moving vehicles.
Finally all that near-record lobby spending by Boeing, maker of the B-1B Lancer will come in handy.
Do note: only moderate Syrian rebels will be given control over US military equipment, certainly not the more extreme Syrian rebels such as the Al Nusra front, various Al Qaeda splinter cells and of course, the various ISIS progenitor groups which the US is "fighting" this very moment!
That's just one part of it: as part of America's creation of its next well-equipped, well-armed, well-trained and very lethal adversary in 2-4 years time, when the "moderate" Syrian rebels are found to have been quite "extreme", the U.S. will also start training rebels, pardon - moderate rebels - who are "waging a two-front fight against the extremists and Syrian regime forces."
The projected timeline of the brilliant US plan:
The first training sessions are to last between six and eight weeks. The training will focus on helping the rebel forces hold territory and counter Islamic State fighters—not to take on the Syrian army.
After that the U.S. will consider introducing what it is calling “the new Syrian force” onto the battlefield in Syria, officials said.
A team of four to six rebels will each be given a Toyota Hi-Lux pickup, outfitted with a machine gun, communications gear and Global Positioning System trackers enabling them to call in airstrikes. The fighters will also be given mortars, but the administration hasn’t decided to provide the teams with more sophisticated antitank weapons.
Of course, the battle to give Qatar free passage of its natural gas pipeline across Syria is not new (recall: "Mystery Sponsor Of Weapons And Money To Syrian Mercenary "Rebels" Revealed"): "the Central Intelligence Agency began a covert program to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels in 2013, providing ammunition, small arms and antitank weapons to small groups of trusted fighters. While that program continues, it is widely viewed as having fallen well short of its aims."
This time will be different, however, because "the new military program is supposed to train a larger number of fighters and, with the addition of air support, officials say they hope it will have a more dramatic impact on the battlefield."
The real question, however, is dramatic impact against whom? The real answer: not ISIS, which is just a strawman to finally topple Qatar's, pardon, America's real enemy in the region, Syria's Assad.
And therein lies the rub, because this entire operation has nothing to do with suppressing an ISIS which has seemingly specialized in making Hollywood quality straight to YouTube decapitation videos, and everything to do with finally crushing al Assad's regime, something the US started in 2013 with the infamous YouTube clip of chemical weapons which nearly turned into an all out war before Russia intervened and halted what could well have been a global war.
Sure enough: "The administration also has been grappling with legal and policy issues—including the highly charged question of whether to confront Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ’s forces if they engage the American-trained rebels."
And the problem, as Zero Hedge readers knows very well, is that a green light by Obama allowing the "moderate" rebels to fight Assad's soldiers and regime, is just a matter of time. At which point the only pending question is how will Russia respond, because then Putin will have no choice but to defend his strategic natgas territorial interest using military means. Which is when the previously noted proposal of retaliating on US-ally Saudi Arabia becomes a very distinct possibility.
Which is where the latest Obama plan runs into difficulties: how to continue pretending that the "war" is against ISIS when in reality it is all about Assad:
U.S. officials don’t know whether American planes will be able to provide air support if the moderate forces it trains get in a fight not with Islamic State, but with forces loyal to the Syrian president.
Because the U.S. isn’t at war with Syria, U.S. military lawyers are wrestling with the question of whether American warplanes would have legal authorization to strike Mr. Assad’s forces, even to support a U.S.-trained rebel force.
Aside from the legal issues, officials also said that, as a policy question, the White House hasn't given a green light to supporting the rebels if they get into a battle with the Syrian military.
One thing is certain: with the help of his new warhawks, neo-confriends, Obama will quickly transform what is supposedly a war on ISIS (which recall in August started as an isolated humanitarian intervention that would promptly end) into its true essence: an undeclared war on the Syrian regime.
Some Republican lawmakers, including Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), have been critical of what they see as a U.S. campaign in Syria that is too narrow to succeed. "How can we train up a Free Syrian Army or send any other force into Syria if we don’t first deal with the Assad air threat,” Mr. Graham said at a confirmation hearing this month for incoming Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
Some countries believe it should expand to take on the Assad regime. Others believe it would be a mistake to dilute the focus, and say attacking the Assad forces could quickly help Islamic State grow stronger.
Officials said that expanding the war to the Assad forces could fracture the international coalition gathered to fight Islamic State.
Which means in the coming weeks and months look forward to a surge in false flag "attacks" blamed on the Assad regime, aiming to give Obama validation to expand the "War against ISIS" to include Syria's regime as well.
What this would do, is create a whole new coalition, one backed by Russia and various other non-Western alligned nations, which will support the Syrian president in what will ultimately be a replica of the near-global war outcome from the summer of 2013.
And while the whole thing is so stupid that it would be hilarious if it wasn't tragic, the biggest non-sequitor in the entire plan is also the most basic question: just how will the US discern which of the Syrian "rebels" are moderate, which we assume means will only fight against US enemies, as opposed to extremist, such as all those Syrian "rebels" the US armed in 2013 only for them to be subsequently revealed as al Qaeda and ISIS predecessors.
Actually, it is neither hilarious nor tragic. Conveniently, none other than Andy Borowitz provided the blueprint by which the US government should proceed when sorting out the "moderates" from the merely homicidally Jidahist, decapitation-happy elements:
From the Borowitz Report:
Welcome to the United States’ Moderate Syrian Rebel Vetting Process. To see if you qualify for $500 million in American weapons [ZH: and US taxpayer-funded air support], please choose an answer to the following questions:
As a Syrian rebel, I think the word or phrase that best describes me is:
A) Moderate
B) Very moderate
C) Crazy moderate
D) Other
I became a Syrian rebel because I believe in:
A) Truth
B) Justice
C) The American Way
D) Creating an Islamic caliphate
If I were given a highly lethal automatic weapon by the United States, I would:
A) Only kill exactly the people that the United States wanted me to kill
B) Try to kill the right people, with the caveat that I have never used an automatic weapon before
C) Kill people only after submitting them to a rigorous vetting process
D) Immediately let the weapon fall into the wrong hands
I have previously received weapons from:
A) Al Qaeda
B) The Taliban
C) North Korea
D) I did not receive weapons from any of them because after they vetted me I was deemed way too moderate
I consider ISIS:
A) An existential threat to Iraq
B) An existential threat to Syria
C) An existential threat to Iraq and Syria
D) The people who will pick up my American weapon after I drop it and run away
Complete the following sentence. “American weapons are…”
A) Always a good thing to randomly add to any international hot spot
B) Exactly what this raging civil war has been missing for the past three years
C) Best when used moderately
D) Super easy to resell online
Thank you for completing the Moderate Syrian Rebel Application Form. We will process your application in the next one to two business days. Please indicate a current mailing address where you would like your weapons to be sent. If there is no one to sign for them we will leave them outside the front door.
»
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As long they're not wearing boots, it isn't a lie...
Lets see... Obama arms moderates who then become ISIS and behead everyone they run onto, He arms the Libyan Rebels who turn on our ambassador in Benghazi then join ISIS, He helps Iran get nuclear weapons, and now he wants to let Muslims, sorry, "moderate Muslims" access to B1 Bombers. Seems like the only people Obama wants disarmed are the American people...
Yol'll be able to keep your Daisy B.B. gun (only 10 b.b.s allowed) Milestones
Easy way to get back at the neighbor that stole your goat two years ago.....
I know someone who was a spotter on the ground in Lebanon back in the day for the New Jersey. The US had NO real knowledge of the local players and got used big time in settling long time local feuds. Not much vetting went on in checking out the info they were acting on. Nothing like having the US drop a few 16" shells on someone you've been feuding with for the past decade. Tell the 'mericans they're Palestinian terrorists and BAM BAM BAM.....
Lebanon civil war backfired on US when DEA & Lebanon drug mobsters were somehow involved in drug courier flights to the US with inadequate cargo security being hijacked for the bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie Scotland.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.
.._. .._ _... ._ ._.
same as it ever was.
Apparently, the Kenyan has no idea that our guys who call in combat air support are extremely highly trained.
His Raghead Toyota Monkeys will level most of the country's hospitals and orphanages before he figures this out.
BTW, he just let the Pentagon put the kibosh on the venerable A-10 program, so as to to funnel billions more into the F-35 endless rathole.
Hollywood couldn't make this shit up.
Just nuke Damascus and get The Apocalypse rolling already will ya Obozo?
I am beginnining to get a hint of how the serfs must have felt as they watched their Nero's etc run their civilizations into the dirt from which they sprung. I can't say I like the feelings.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22652131
S300 can eat B1s for breakfast.
The S-300 is a good system, but things are not that clear cut.
Read billmill's comment above about Growlers (ECM) and Weasels (Anti-SAM).
Yes, would be surprising if there were no counter measures...
The B1-B is awesome! Does Obama know WTF he's doing? Idiot.
What we have today is, 'History-on-a-Merry-Go-Round' ,leading up to the present day Levant crisis?' There is no rhyme or rhythm, just an overall poisoning of the Middle-Eastern`Well!
By the beginning of WWI the entire Ottoman Empire was Westernized. It was a century ago before Ataturk was to say the revolution (the, 'Young Turk's') was, 'No Accident'. For 'Five Centuries', we have given our blood and possesions for the Arab's and still could not please them.
Turkey, truly sees itself as European. So, let us see how the noble-race (Arab's) fares under the French (and British)? Burham Cahit a Turkish writer of the tyme wrote with his unbiased distain, and unapoligetic ctitique: the Arab's are a fickle-race,... a fare-weather friend,...an ungrateful flip-flopper race, where loyal-comaraderie and solidarity isn't in their vocabulary! Period!
Chronology of Syria (and the Lebanon?):
1) The Ottoman Empire is eviserated post WWI. From 1908-22 the finale`dissolution!
2) WWI Mandates via 'The League of Nations' and the secret Sykes-Picot. France gets Syria (the Lebanon) and the British Iraq/ Kuwait & Egypt (already a protectorate) where the Persian's play no-game with colonialism as yet?!?
3) The Lebanese / Syrian Independence. Syria is the focal point here where Vichy French were reluctant to give up the 'Fertile Crescent', but the USSR and USSA were insistent.
4) There were three (3) coup d`etat's in nine (9) months during 1946 (Syria's Independence) and by the tyme Assad Senior took dictatorship there were seven (7) total (1954-56,1961,1966, 1970). Assad senior reigned from 1970-2000 leaving the country to his son. Note3: Between 1946 and 1956, Syria had twenty (20) different cabinets and drafted four (4) separate constitutions.
Ref: Syria: 'A Brief History of Syria' http://theartofsimple.net/a-brief-history-of-syria/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_history_of_Syria
and let us not forget that Lebanon is the heart of the ISIS assault? from Turkey to Jordans' Hashemite's into Egypt which inflamed Islam's omnipresent Muslim Brotherhood! http://countrystudies.us/lebanon/21.htm
jmo
It's amazing how blind Americans are to the whole ME operation, and 60 years of US history. Recall how Guatemala was overthrown by the CIA in 1954 (they had no qualms showing a clip of how they manipulated the events). They sent a few peasants in a pickup with guns to fire on Governmental buildings, then ran after guards shot back. The CIA now had a pretext of revolution and overthrew Guatemala. So many examples of the same US tactic (as recently as this month in Venezuela).
ISIS are CIA puppets creating a pretext for the USA to destroy Syria and take it over. When the US, UK, EU, AUS, CAN populations are not convinced to attack Syria, the CIA get ISIS to pile it on with horrors to influence citizens to condone Imperialist murder. And the racists here spew their ignorant hatred with calls to commit genocide, fooled by the wag the dog PSYOPS. Pathetic.
I-am-not-one-of-them, reading your comment, I was almost tempted to write a long post about the sordid Guatemala "operation", but I came to my senses and decided to spare fellow ZHers the pain of having to deal with my particular brand of madness.
However, I do want to point out just one historic fact about the economic interests of some key persons in the Eisenhower administration involved in that fiasco.
Important people in the ruling circles of the US were involved with the United Fruit Company, and used their influence to spur the US government to violent action. The degree of connection between U.S. policy makers and the UFC, and their self interest in the highly profitable company's survival, is striking. The list speaks for itself.
Following the coup, things went downhill fast for Guatemala. Installed by the US, Colonel Castillo Armas became the new “president”. This inaugurated an era of military rule in Central America. Generals and Colonels acted with impunity to wipe out dissent and garner wealth for themselves and their friends. The US Ambassador furnished Armas with extensive lists of specific opponents to be eliminated, and a vicious bloodbath ensued. Under Armas, tens of thousands were arrested, tortured and killed. Armas disenfranchised almost all the voters by barring illiterates from voting, outlawing all political parties, labor confederations, and peasant organizations. The country was plunged into 40 years of bloody civil war with a death toll measured in the hundreds of thousands.
The coup restored the stranglehold on the Guatemalan economy of both the landed elite and US economic interests. President Eisenhower was willing to make the poor, illiterate Guatemalan peasants pay in hunger, torture, and death for supporting very mild land reform, and for trying to attain a better future for themselves and their families. The US State Department, the CIA, and United Fruit Company had succeeded in taking freedom and land from Guatemala's peasants, unions from its workers, and hope for a democratic Guatemala from all of its people in order to ensure ever-increasing profits for an American corporation.
Guatemala would not have a democratically elected leader for another 32 years, until the election of Marco Vinicio Cerezo in 1986.The Guatemalan coup is a good example of what neocolonialism is all about. Most people do not know it, but the US has an extensive (over two centuries) track record of shit like this in Latin America.
This military aid support kit comes with a selfie stick so you can take one meanwhile somerandom towns are blowng up and post it on facebook to use ir as a "evidence" eventually.
You can't make this shit up. Unbelievable.
I doubt that US support to Syrian rebels is about Qatar´s free passage of its natural gas pipeline across Syria. Nor do I think that John McCain is particularly concerned about this possible pipeline. Not even the shale oil industry in the US has got enough lobby power to make the US government force Saudi Arabia reduce its oil production somewhat. Quatar has even less lobby power. Furthermore, a pipeline from Quatar to Europe does not have to cross Syria. Just look at the map.
I don't presume to know what McCain thinks. But I observe that his ass has grown to the diameter of an arm to facilitate his ability to be a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) sock-puppet.
Slowing demand due to economic malaise is the primary cause of low oil. Oil producers normally reduce production to mirror demand for the purpose of keeping prices stable. However, there is currently a three-way price war in the oil patch to capture customer markets. So all three keep producing hoping the other two will blink.
Doesn't have to go through Syria???
Are you serious?
The alternative is to go through Iran, who competes with Qatari gas! Who the hell wants to put their shipping at the mercy of their competitor?
You can't go through big portions of Iraq because the terrain is not suitable.
There are pipelines all over Iraq.
There are also plans for a natural gas pipeline from northern Iraq through southern Turkey. It seems as if this natural gas pipeline would built alongside the existing oil pipeline.
Google “natural gas” Iraq pipeline.
The Nobel Prize, of Peace with B1-B Bombers, lol,lol,lol
Peace voided by Death of Drones and now Carpets of B1 destruction. When does Satan gets his/her medal?
If I was a +20 year B1-B pilot, where my out papers, done over and out, EOM
And that clinches it: DC has gone full retard. Pretty sure I can start paying my taxes in Pet Rocks and no one in DC would think it strange.
it is time to throw little boy on Tel Aviv and fat man on Washington
This is a giant mistake, and apparently a very deliberate 'mistake' as well.
Washington is trying to trap participating allied countries into a war with Assad, and of course that will inevitably lead to a war with Iran, and by default with all Shia, and as you say, with Russia. If Canberra has any brains (i.e. its politicians...) it will snap out of it right now, and give the US one month's notice of intent to pack up and pull out all combat forces.
The Australian public did not sign up for a war with Assad or with Iran, or with Hezbollah, or with Russia. And absolutely the public do not want any part of any other agenda Obama is cooking up to ceate even more war.
This whole setup is a series of strategic booby traps and I've been expecting for months that Washington would try this sort of attack on Assad and thus fuckup everything.
I'm damned sure Iran has been watching for this sort of treachery too.
so you're an aussie kazza.
Australian Anglo, the devil itself. I told you weeks ago I was Australian you dopey idiot-fuck. Two things; stop pretending you're intelligent, and quit up-voting yourself every time you post you pathetic loser.
What the hell is a 'moderate' Syrian rebel?
Those assholes have been absolutely refusing any form of peace agreement from day one, and they all threatened to invite in Al Qaeda if the West did not give them air cover and weapons.
Which is exactly what those western backed rebel assholes in Libya did as well, they like wise demanded no peace talks with Gaddafi, destroyed the country, and are now are in bed with ISIL, or are in fact actually ISIL.
These people are the same damned thing, the who assertion of moderate rebels ins an asinine facetious myth. They are all hardline war-intent aggressive scum who have zero interest in making peace, and their number one aim and tactic all along, and still it now, to demand western air cover and western weapons and training to destroy whole countries.
And here's that fucking retard in the White House trying to give it to them again.
C'mon guys! This is from The Onion, right? LOL
If it's true, 0baMao has gone from delusional to demented and needs to be removed from office.
Best explanation yet, both of them.
So I guess he must be planning on giving them satellite radios with US SECRET encryption fills so they can call the B1B?
Will he also give them sophisticated stereo-scopic land radar maps so they can mensurate coordinates?
A bomber is not a Close Air Support aircraft. You can't hold up orange panels so the pilot can see what you want to strike, and what not.
A bomber does not strafe the ground, and drop 50lb bombs when they visually 'see' the bad guy. They fly at 25k-50k AGL and release 6000-lb bombs from 30 miles away. And the bomb glides to impact based on highly accurate programming.
I see no way that this can work unless the rest of what they've said about US involvement is bunk.
that was priceless
At this point I see no reason to hold back on the skarks with lazors.
I think we should hold off on this until we see how the administrations other efforts are working. For example ...
Ms. Harf´s just announced program "Midnight Basketball for Jihadis" is seeking volunteers! State Department will provide coach class transport to the middle east for volunteers who meet the one job requirement: head must be small enough to fit through the hoop ...