The Washington Post has a story today under the following headline:
Largest Syrian rebel groups form Islamic alliance, in possible blow to U.S. influence
This headline wins the prize for understatement of the month. What the news article relates is how 11 of the biggest armed groups among the Syrian rebels have joined with the newly announced Islamic alliance which is headed by the al Qaeda linked group called al Nusrah. To be clear, this is not the formation of a union of jihadist groups; essentially all of the eleven large armed groups are not Islamists; they are groups that formerly followed the US and Western backed opposition coalition. Now, they are leaving that group and aligning themselves with the terrorists.
Why has this happened? What would lead non-Islamist Sunni groups to suddenly move to support the al Qaeda affiliate? The answer is quite simple: these groups saw president Obama in action (or more properly in inaction.) They heard Obama set out a red line regarding chemical weapons and then dither when those weapons were used. They heard Obama announce that the USA was going to send arms to the rebels and then back off leaving the rebels twisting in the wind with no help. They watched Obama back away from any confrontation with the Assad forces when he was offered a fig leaf by Putin. They watched Obama take steps that moved well down the road towards guaranteeing that Assad would stay in power. In short, these groups watched Obama, America and the rest of the West abandon them to their fates. Since these groups understand that defeat in the civil war means death to them, their families and most of their neighbors, they have moved to join with the one group that seems ready to fight on against Assad and which also seems to have the weapons to do so. That means that by means of a totally incompetent policy on Syria, Obama has managed to drive the rebels almost entirely into the waiting arms of al Qaeda.
It is a foreign policy disaster that few Americans will even hear about. The media will probably not cover the story much more than this one story in the Washington Post that avoids the enormity of the failure by Obama and his people. It is a story, however, that everyone needs to understand.
Largest Syrian rebel groups form Islamic alliance, in possible blow to U.S. influence
This headline wins the prize for understatement of the month. What the news article relates is how 11 of the biggest armed groups among the Syrian rebels have joined with the newly announced Islamic alliance which is headed by the al Qaeda linked group called al Nusrah. To be clear, this is not the formation of a union of jihadist groups; essentially all of the eleven large armed groups are not Islamists; they are groups that formerly followed the US and Western backed opposition coalition. Now, they are leaving that group and aligning themselves with the terrorists.
Why has this happened? What would lead non-Islamist Sunni groups to suddenly move to support the al Qaeda affiliate? The answer is quite simple: these groups saw president Obama in action (or more properly in inaction.) They heard Obama set out a red line regarding chemical weapons and then dither when those weapons were used. They heard Obama announce that the USA was going to send arms to the rebels and then back off leaving the rebels twisting in the wind with no help. They watched Obama back away from any confrontation with the Assad forces when he was offered a fig leaf by Putin. They watched Obama take steps that moved well down the road towards guaranteeing that Assad would stay in power. In short, these groups watched Obama, America and the rest of the West abandon them to their fates. Since these groups understand that defeat in the civil war means death to them, their families and most of their neighbors, they have moved to join with the one group that seems ready to fight on against Assad and which also seems to have the weapons to do so. That means that by means of a totally incompetent policy on Syria, Obama has managed to drive the rebels almost entirely into the waiting arms of al Qaeda.
It is a foreign policy disaster that few Americans will even hear about. The media will probably not cover the story much more than this one story in the Washington Post that avoids the enormity of the failure by Obama and his people. It is a story, however, that everyone needs to understand.
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