Reports emerged Thursday afternoon that President Barack Obama is seeking $500 million to, per the Associated Press (AP), “train and arm vetted members of the Syrian opposition” as rebel forces struggle to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime.
The aid, should it be approved by Congress, would according to the Washington Post “mark the first direct U.S. military participation in the Syrian conflict”:
The request does not specify the type of military equipment that would be included. Although the administration has sent small arms and ammunition, as well as non-lethal assistance, and has allowed others to send U.S.-made anti-tank weapons, it has rebuffed opposition calls for portable anti-aircraft missiles.
Recent months have seen increased pressure from current and former U.S. officials to provide assistance to moderate rebel groups in Syria, including Secretary of State John Kerry, who last month told representatives from the Syrian opposition that the international community had “wasted a year” by failing to coordinate on efforts to provide assistance to groups fighting Assad.
Former Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford earlier this month told CNN that he resigned from his post because he was “no longer in a position where I felt I could defend American policy” and that adequate military and financial assistance would have strengthened rebel fighters, which were dealt a series of blows late last year and earlier this year as regime forces rolled back a year’s worth of opposition gains.
Days later, Ford called for Washington to provide more than humanitarian aid to the country’s civilians — recent figures have the number of refugees in neighboring countries at about 2.5 million, and the number of internally displaced Syrians at 6.5 million:
Americans can be proud that we have provided over $2 billion in humanitarian aid to help Syrian refugees. But this is treating symptoms, not the disease. We must have a strategy that deals with both Mr. Assad and the jihadists.
We don’t need American airstrikes in Syria, and we certainly don’t need American troops there. But with partner countries from the Friends of Syria group like France, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, we must ramp up sharply the training and material aid provided to the moderates in the armed opposition.
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