It seems that the reason why Obama has been such a staunch supporter of a Syrian campaign without a land component, is because US-armed and trained Qatari mercenaries, also known elsewhere in the media as "rebels", are about to take to the battlefield (ignoring for a moment prior reports [6]that American, Israeli and other troops have already long operated on Syrian territory). The Telegraph reports that "the first cell of Syrian rebels trained and armed by the CIA is making its way to the battlefield, President Barack Obama has reportedly told senators. During a meeting at the White House, the president assured Senator John McCain that after months of delay the US was meeting its commitment to back moderate elements of the opposition. Mr Obama said that a 50-man cell, believed to have been trained by US special forces in Jordan."
More [7]:
The deployment of the rebel unit seems to be the first tangible measure of support since Mr Obama announced in June that the US would begin providing the opposition with small arms.
Congressional opposition delayed the plan for several weeks and rebel commanders publicly complained the US was still doing nothing to match the Russian-made firepower of the Assad regime.
Mr McCain has been a chief critic of the White House's reluctance to become involved in Syria and has long demanded that Mr Obama provide the rebels with arms needed to overthrow the regime.
Still, one can't help but wonder why only 50 people? After all, if the Assad regime is so proficient with chemical weapons, all that would take to wipe out the Syrian version of the A-Team would be one relatively well placed WMD hit. After all, just like in Iraq, they serve WMDs at ever regime-controlled coffee shop, both grande and venti variations, right?
As for the punchline, or what happens after the surgical intervention is over?
"They're not trying to replace one dictator, Assad, who has been brutal... to only have al-Qaeda run Syria," Lindsey Graham said.
No, just replace it with a pro-Qatari/pro-Syria regime, which just may have a few Al-Qaeda participants in ti, and which like in the case of Egypt, will last about two years top before it too is toppled in a countercoup. What happens then?