Obama Admin. Decides to Aid Syrian Opposition

[sad sally]

The administration's decision is bound to cause the Syrian conflict to get much worse
by John Glaser, March 06, 2012

The Obama administration has retreated from its initial refusal to stay out of the conflict in Syria by agreeing this week to provide direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition.

While the change in policy did not go as far as providing military assistance – administration officials say the military option and military aid is still off the table – the news is a troubling sign for the antiwar movement. “These moves are going to invest the U.S. in a much deeper sense with the opposition,” one administration official told Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy. “U.S. policy is now aligned with enabling the opposition to overthrow the Assad regime. This codifies a significant change in our Syria policy.”

Agreeing to give non-military aid to the Syrian opposition drastically increases the likelihood that substantial military assistance, from the U.S. or some other allied country, will soon be introduced. And establishing an official policy of regime change in Syria amounts to a policy of radical imperialism. This opens the floodgates for yet another war of choice by the Obama administration.

The worsening civil war in Syria and the brutal crackdown by the regime of Bashar al-Assad had prompted months of pressure in Washington for a full-scale intervention, and Senator John McCain just Monday argued for airstrikes across Syria. But the administration had resisted the pressure.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/06/obama-admin-decides-to-aid-syrian-opposition/

DoD Plans for Syria Action, Warns it Should be Last Resort

March 07, 2012
Military.com|by Philip Ewing

The Pentagon has begun early work drawing up "options" for a military campaign against Syria, but its top leaders stressed Wednesday that they thought force should be the last option for ending the bloodshed there, and that America must not act alone.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. has the military power to act, but that isn't the most important question.

"We can do anything," he said. "It's not about ‘can we do it,' it's the question of ‘should we do it,' and what are the opportunity costs elsewhere."
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For one thing, Syria's longstanding military relationship with Russia means it has five times as many anti-air weapons as Libya, Panetta said, and they're probably much more advanced. Syria's air defenses also are mostly located near its populated areas, and Panetta warned that attacks risked "severe collateral damage."

http://www.military.com/news/article/dod-plans-for-syria-action-warns-it-should-be-last-resort.html

[sad sally]

2. Here's an addition to the op

Stratfor Emails: Covert Special Ops Inside Syria Since December
A private conversation with Pentagon officials suggested US and allied troops were on the ground in Syria
by John Glaser, March 07, 2012

Special operations forces from the U.S. and its allies have been on the ground in Syria since at least December, according to confidential emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that were released by WikiLeaks.
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Publicly, the Obama administration has retreated from its initial refusal to stay out of the conflict in Syria by agreeing this week to provide direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition. While the official line remains to keep military options off the table for now, the change in policy could open the flood gates for expanded military intervention.

Complicating the official story, a report coming out of Lebanon this week claimed 13 French soldiers were captured in the Syrian city of Homs. The French Foreign Ministry denied the claims, saying there are no ground troops in Syria.

According to the Stratfor analyst, after rejecting the prospect of “an eventual air campaign,” the officials at the Pentagon told him “the idea ‘hypothetically’ is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within.”

The extent to which the information exchanged in the conversation was “hypothetical” is not clear and no U.S. official has made any comment on the information in the leaked email. The discussion appeared focused on contingency planning and the phrase “they said without saying” is never elaborated on. The date of the email coincides roughly with the first public reports of secret contingency planing in December.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/03/07/stratfor-emails-covert-special-ops-inside-syria-since-december/

http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1671459_insight-military-intervention-in-syria-post-withdrawal.html