Syria Rebel Chief Warns of "Disaster" Without Aid

[Jefferson23]

The military chief of Syria's main Western-backed rebel group is warning that the country risks a "humanitarian disaster" if allies do not send more aid to help his moderate forces stop advancing Islamic militants.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir, commander of the Free Syrian army, said in a statement Saturday that fighters of the extremist Islamic State group were systematically seizing areas held by rival factions.

His plea comes as fierce infighting among the Islamic extremists and moderate rebels has overshadowed their battle against President Bashar Assad.

Al-Bashir called on the United States and other allies to speedily send weapons and ammunition.

Extremist Sunni militants have seized swaths of northern and western Iraq and are advancing along the border in Syria as well.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/islamic-militants-seize-syria-oil-field-24426471

[Igel]

1. Ah. Another "we built that" moment.

"We," of course, isn't just the US.

But for all the wisdom about how horrible * was in destabilizing Iraq by removing Saddam, what did the West do in Syria? That "wisdom" seems to be fairly well concentrated among certain groups of Westerners.

Destabilized Syria by weakening Assad in an attempt to remove him. Those who claimed see the clearest and have the greatest understanding apparently were too busy engaging in extensive celebratory face-palming to actually look and see.

One could argue--possibly even correctly--that Iraq would be far more stable without the mess that was formed in Syria. Whether Iraq would have blown up on its own or whether things would have, over the course of several more years, worked themselves out to produce a better system in Iraq is an open question. Possibly not, but there was a chance. It's more convenient to say that there was no chance and what's happened in the last month would have happened in exactly that way at exactly that time (something that's really quite unlikely) than to even admit there was "a chance."