Kerry: We have to attack Syria or the rebel forces will gain strength. Er, what?

[pampango]

22. The confusion may be that some equate "rebels" with "extremists", while the other poster

seems to think that "extremists" refers to the jihadist factions of the rebels.

“I guarantee you if we turn our backs today, the picture we all saw in the paper today and the media of those people shot, that will take place more because more extremists will be attracted to this,” Kerry said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

“Because they will be funded as the only alternative in order to take on Assad,” he warned.

If you substitute "rebels" in "because more extremists will be attracted to this" ("because more rebels will be attracted to this&quot , your take is correct. Kerry's statement does not make any sense.

If the other poster substitutes "jihadists" in "because more extremists will be attracted to this" ("because more jihadists will be attracted to this&quot Kerry's statement makes more sense. The jihadists have their funding no matter what. If no one funds the non-jihadist factions in the opposition, then the influence of the jihadists in the opposition grows.

I think Kerry means "jihadists" (or 'terrorists' or 'al Qaeda', etc.) when he says "extremists" because he goes on to say “Because they will be funded as the only alternative in order to take on Assad”.

Look, I think Assad's forces are guilty but a strike on them is not a good idea. It may weaken Assad militarily for a short time, but in the long run it may strengthen him because 'he stood up to the US and survived their attack'. It will make negotiations more difficult and that is the only way this will be resolved. Neither side is strong enough to win militarily alone.

They will have to negotiate a settlement in one of two directions. Either Syria remains intact and the government that emerges is based on majority and minority rights. Or, if they (the Sunni majority and/or the substantial Alawite/Shia/Christian minorities) are convinced that the Sunni majority cannot live peacefully with all the minority groups that make up much of the population, there will have to be some kind of partition. The last option is to keep the slaughter going until most Syrians are dead or refugees in other countries and someone emerges on top of an utterly destroyed country; Syria remains intact with a repressive dictatorship either of a Sunni majority repressing Alawites, Shia, Christians and other minorities or of minority groups repressing the majority Sunnis.

The first option is the best because, as a liberal, it is hard to favor any option that involves someone being repressed, but it looks very difficult to achieve given how long this conflict has gone on.