“It has few other options.” How about this: don’t arm or aid any of America’s enemies. Speak realistically about the jihad threat, and seek to prevent jihad terror attacks at home. Or else go in with ground troops that aren’t crippled by politically correct Rules of Engagement, and crush the Islamic State, and then leave, without indulging in quixotic, self-defeating and ill-informed attempts to create Western-style secular republics in the Middle East.
“Lack of reliable partners in Syria poses daunting challenge to U.S.,” by Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2014 (thanks to Patrick Poole):
…It’s not yet clear whether Washington’s purported allies in Syria are completely on board with the U.S. offensive against Islamic State. One of the administration’s favored moderate rebel factions, Harakat Hazm, part of the Free Syrian Army alliance and a recipient of U.S. missiles and training, issued a statement Tuesday denouncing the “external intervention” — that is, the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Syria — as “an attack on the revolution.”
The group said its main goal was toppling Assad. It is demanding “unconditional arming” of the Free Syrian Army, yet its members also acknowledge fighting alongside Al Nusra Front, the official Al Qaeda force in Syria.
Still, the country’s motley bands of fighters labeled as moderates may well be the White House’s best hope for now. It has few other options….