Obama makes clear regime change in Syria is a goal.
President Obama: Syria is more challenging, because the U.S. has few viable allies on the ground there.
The regime of Bashir Assad is fighting ISIS but the U.S. wants Assad deposed for committing horrific crimes against his own people and other opposition groups like the al-Nusra Front and a terrorist cell called Khorasan, which was plotting attacks against Europe and the U.S., and are both affiliated with al Qaeda. The coalition is hoping to train 5,000 moderate Syrian fighters in Saudi Arabia.
Steve Kroft: Is there a moderate Syrian opposition?
President Obama: There is. But right now, it doesn't control much territory. It has been squeezed between ISIL on the one hand and the Assad regime on the other.
Steve Kroft: These are the people that you said, the farmers, the doctors, the pharmacists, who stood no chance of overthrowing' the government.
President Obama: Well keep in mind two years ago, that was absolutely true. This is in response to the mythology that's evolved that somehow if we had given those folks some guns two and a half years ago, that Syria would be fine. And the point that I made then, which is absolutely true, is that for us to just start arming inexperienced fighters who we hadn't vetted, so we didn't know and couldn't sort out very well who's potentially ISIL or al-Nusra member and who is somebody that we're going to work with. For us to just go blind on that would have been counterproductive and would not have helped the situation. But it also would have committed us to a much more significant role inside of Syria.
Steve Kroft:
You've said, that we need to get rid of Assad.
President Obama:
Yeah.
Steve Kroft: And while we're saying we have to get rid of Assad, we are also bombing and trying to take out some of his most threatening opponents and the...
President Obama: I recognize...
Steve Kroft: And the beneficiary of this is Assad.
President Obama: I recognize the contradiction in a contradictory land and a contradictory circumstance.
We are not going to stabilize Syria under the rule of Assad, because the Sunni areas inside of Syria view Assad as having carried out terrible atrocities. The world has seen them. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Millions have been displaced.
So for a long-term political settlement, for Syria to remain unified, it is not possible that Assad presides over that entire process. On the other hand, in terms of immediate threats to the United States, ISIL, Khorasan group, those folks could kill Americans. And so...
Steve Kroft: They're more important than Assad at this point. That's what you're saying.
President Obama:
What I'm saying is that they're all connected, but there's a more immediate concern that has to be dealt with.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-obama-60-minutes/Not that ever seriously was, but regime change in Syria is clearly a goal of this war. It remains a question only of when. We are going to train 5,000 moderate rebels, which will take a year plus. They will be trained to fight IS and Assad. Those are two of the primary objectives. The generals have said it will take 15,000 ground troops to fight IS in Syria.
Where are the other 10,000 coming from? And when?
When will the ground war in Syria start? Will we wage the air war for over a year before any combat troops enter Syria? And when will the immediacy shift to Assad? We all knew that toppling Assad was one of the primary goals, if not the primary goal. When do we shift to target him?
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