by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 20, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

             Proving that the White House hasn’t learned the most basic lesson from the Iraq War, 53-year-old President Barack Obama authorized a joint project to train “moderate” opposition fighters in Syria to battle the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  Signing a joint deal with Turkey, the White House planned to send about 400 troops to train 5,000 anti-Assad rebels a year, for three years.  “The agreement was signed by the foreign ministry and the U.S. ambassador,” said an unnamed Turkish official.  Signing onto a joint training agreement with the Free Syrian Army guarantees the U.S. fights a proxy war against Iran.  Announcing the joint training deal at a delicate state of nuclear talks with Iran raises more doubts about whether or not the P5+1, including U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, can complete a meaningful nuclear arms pact with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran.

             Turkey expressed hope that bolstering the Free Syrian Army will hasten al-Assad’s collapse in Syria, the exact opposite of Iran and Russia.  Obama resisted calls to arm so-called rebel opposition groups seeking to topple al-Assad’s regime.  Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), now chairman of the Armed Services committee, calling for air strikes Sept. 9, 2013 against Damascus.  Obama resisted calls by conservative on Capitol Hill to get U.S. forces embroiled in another Mideast civil war in Syria.  McCain had urged Obama as early as March 5, 2012 to bomb Damascus. After visiting Brig. Gen. Salim Idris in Syria May 27, 2013, McCain was more convinced that al-Assad must go.  When al-Assad was accused of using chemical weapons April 20, 2014, Obama began to see McCain’s point of view about toppling al-Assad.

             With the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] raging out-of-control, even Obama has begun to see McCain’s logic of intervening in Syria.  Russian President Vladimir Putin, now under the gun for his support of pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, vehemently opposes any U.S. attempt to topple al-Assad.  Putin has warned the U.S. of more terrorism and anarchy if rebels succeed in ousting al-Assad.  Announcing the joint military deal to train and equip the Free Syrian Army raised the stakes in Syria where a determined Sunni insurgency marches on.  McCain wasn’t happy Feb. 19, 2014 when he learned his friend Gen. Idris was ousted from the Free Syrian Army, replaced by Gen. Abdul Llah-al-Bashir.  Ousting Idris shows the instability of opposition groups seeking to topple al-Assad.  Throwing more arms and cash at opposition groups, even with Turkey’s help, carries certain risks.

             Backing the Free Syrian Army to oust al-Assad, the White House joins ISIS, al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and other radical Sunni groups trying to upend al-Assad’s Alawite Shiite government.  Putin has warned that toppling al-Assad would only promote, as it did it Baghdad, more anarchy and violence.  White House officials can’t seem to get the mission straight on whether or not toppling al-Assad was low on priority while battling ISIS.  Even possible GOP presidential contender former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reluctantly admitted at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Feb. 18 “there were mistakes made in Iraq for sure,” referring to his brother.  Calling Obama’s foreign policy “inconsistent and indecisive,” Jeb only criticizes his brother former President George W. Bush based on excerpts from “W’s” recent book.  Jeb doesn’t acknowledge today’s Mideast chaos stems from Bush-43’s Iraq War.

             Bush-43’s Iraq War spent the nation into insolvency, contributing to the biggest economic collapse in 2007-10 since the Great Depression—according to Nobel winning NYU Stern School economist Joseph I. Stiglitz.  Jeb admitted only that intelligence glitches led to the failure to find Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, the alleged reason for the Iraq War.  Jeb quotes Bush-43’s reluctantly admission that failing to secure Iraq after Saddam April 10, 2003 was also a problem.  However “inconsistent and indecisive,” Obama has not got the U.S. into another Mideast War, though Jeb blames Barack for pulling combat troops out of Iraq too soon.  Ending the Iraq War Dec. 15, 2011, Barack fulfilled a campaign promise, that spending more than $1 trillion on Iraq was enough.  Jeb offers nothing of what he would have done differently, only insisting, “he’s his own man.”

             Deciding to arm the Free Syrian Army could qualify as what Jeb refers to as Obama’s “inconsistent and indecisive” foreign policy.  When you consider it amounts to a proxy war against Iran and pits the U.S. against Moscow, it makes you wonder whether or not the White House sees any linkage between arming Sunni rebels and Geneva arms talks with Iran.  Without too much to lose during his last two years, Obama hopes to save some foreign policy legacy battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria.  Arming the FSA does little to stop ISIS’s mayhem and land grabs.  With relations at a low point with Moscow over Ukraine, arming the FSA runs afoul with the Kremlin.  Sending a battalion of advisors to train rebel forces against al-Assad does little to mend fences with Moscow or deal with the ISIS’s current mayhem.  More decisions like this only make Hillary’s job all the more difficult in 2016.

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