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House approves US arms for Syrian rebels

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TheDemSocialist

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The House of Representatives has approved President Barack Obama's plan to train and arm Syrian rebels that the U.S. classify as "moderate," but questions remain over whether Washington will hand over advanced weapons that such groups say they need in order to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).The House voted 273-to-156 on Wednesday to authorize the strategy in a test of support for Obama's stepped-up campaign to "degrade and destroy" ISIL fighters who have seized swathes of Iraq and Syria as they seek to expand a self-declared caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.
Written as an amendment to a stopgap spending bill, the measure does not earmark any new money to pay for the arms or training. It passed with support from both Democrats and Republicans, despite significant opposition from members of both parties.
Voting for the amendment were 159 Republicans and 114 Democrats, while 71 Republicans and 85 Democrats voted against.
The spending bill — including the training plan — will only go to Obama to be signed into law after it passes the Senate. That move is expected to come as early as Thursday.
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Read more @: House approves US arms for Syrian rebels

Well the House passed it, with a good amount of opposition. There are many questions to be answered, such as what kind of weapons will be given, will they be advanced? What "groups" in the FSA will the arms reach, etc?
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: House approves US arms for Syrian rebels

Well the House passed it, with a good amount of opposition. There are many questions to be answered, such as what kind of weapons will be given, will they be advanced? What "groups" in the FSA will the arms reach, etc? [/FONT][/COLOR]
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There is little mystery in where Obama sees funding for this alternative "national defense" spending will come from. Note Obama's insistence that we need alternative "boots on the ground" - that seems to imply that we will simply pay, arm and train foreign forces (mercenaries?) as opposed to using our own troops to fill those boots.
 
Paleocon said:
Doesn't this make us a state sponsor of terror?
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It really depends on who the arms will go to. But technically we have been a state sponsor of terror for sometime now....
 
****ing stupid. Why would the house do this...

Want something done right, you best do it yourself.
 
Luftwaffe said:
****ing stupid. Why would the house do this...

Want something done right, you best do it yourself.
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Are you even old enough to join the military?

BTW: This isn't meant as a put-down. I'm just curious. I know I wish I was young again.
 
And we go on repeating history. Aren't we ever going to learn that arming rebels only will bite us in the butt later.
 
This makes little sense to me. Congress is approving arming Syrian Rebels who have shown certain behaviors already. One, their beef is with al-Assad and are most likely to use these arms against his forces. Two, they already have shown that they have no real interest in engaging ISIS in a multiple way civil war (even though that is happening anyway.) It is a bit nonsensical to assume that with these new arms "moderate" Syrian Rebels will all of a sudden point those weapons at ISIS, on top of that I find it awkward that we trust the situation to progress to a point of ISIS fighting a three front war with Iraq (and our airstrikes,) and the Kurds (again, using our airstrikes) and Syrian Rebels (undetermined if we will drop a bomb in Syria and mean it.)

Can someone help me with defense for what Obama wants to do and what Congress appears to be approving?
 
Texmex said:
Are you even old enough to join the military?

BTW: This isn't meant as a put-down. I'm just curious. I know I wish I was young again.
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soon, in about two years I'll be old enough.
 
This is a waste of time and money. ISIS is too well organized for some ad hoc rabble to go up against, even with American air support. The only way to coordinate air support is to have trained FO's on the ground.
 
Texmex said:
Enjoy your youth, don't join the military. Just friendly advice.
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I would join for something useful and righteous were I required so much.

I would not join for something like Vietnam.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: House approves US arms for Syrian rebels

Well the House passed it, with a good amount of opposition. There are many questions to be answered, such as what kind of weapons will be given, will they be advanced? What "groups" in the FSA will the arms reach, etc? [/FONT][/COLOR]
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Idiots.
Apparently they don't watch the ****ing news, otherwise they'd know it was Syrian "rebels" who turned over one US citizen to ISIS, who was later beheaded.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: House approves US arms for Syrian rebels

Well the House passed it, with a good amount of opposition. There are many questions to be answered, such as what kind of weapons will be given, will they be advanced? What "groups" in the FSA will the arms reach, etc? [/FONT][/COLOR]
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This is good, because arming militant factions we have a temporary common cause with has never come back to bite us, ever.
 
Okay, seriously, this is the kind of bull**** that brings out the conspiracy theorist in me. I think everyone knows that our arms are either a)going to end up in the hands of very bad people or b)are going to be turned right around and aimed at us by the very people we gave them to. Nobody doesn't know this. Somewhere in the Amazon an undiscovered tribe is watching a television for the first time, is taking in the news, and one of them is saying, "Yeah, this is gonna end badly." So whose bright idea is this? Arms manufacturers, because they know that after this goes down the toilet we're going to sell more arms to more locals to fight the locals we armed, then that second batch of locals are going to be jerks with our weapons, and we're going to repeat the same damn thing over and over again until the arms manufacturers finally has all the money in the world.
 
The only groups that i'd support arming in this situation is the Kurds and the Iraqi gov't. Everyone else involved should be considered as an enemy or generally untrustworthy.
 
Roadvirus said:
The only groups that i'd support arming in this situation is the Kurds and the Iraqi gov't. Everyone else involved should be considered as an enemy or generally untrustworthy.
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Agree 100%
 
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