US Embassy: Turkey, US sign deal to train, arm Syrian rebels

[jakeXT]

Source: Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey and the United States signed an agreement Thursday to train and arm Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State group, said the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

The two countries have been in talks about such a pact for several months. The deal was signed Thursday evening by U.S Ambassador John Bass and Turkish Foreign Ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, said Embassy spokesman Joe Wierichs. He gave no further details.

Sinirlioglu called the deal "an important step" in the strategic partnership between Turkey and the United States, according to Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency.

The Turkish government has said the training by U.S. and Turkish soldiers could begin as early as next month at a base in the central Anatolian city of Kirsehir, and involve hundreds of Syrian fighters in the first year. The U.S. has said the goal is to go after the Islamic State group, but Turkish officials have suggested that the trained rebels could also target the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e4083f2e5977428a95623248aaeef3fe/us-embassy-turkey-us-sign-deal-train-arm-syrian-rebels

[GreatGazoo]

1. Turkey can't stick to the script (already): "rebels could also target the Syrian government"

[jakeXT]

4. Islamic State Defeat Hinges on Stable Syria, Obama Says

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama suggested Thursday that U.S. and international efforts to degrade and ultimately destroy Islamic State militant group may only be achieved after a political transition in Syria.

Mr. Obama, addressing dignitaries dozens of nations at a White House-sponsored summit on violent extremism, said the civil war in Syria gave rise to Islamic State and charged President Bashar al-Assad with stoking sectarian tensions.

“The Syrian civil war will only end when there is an inclusive political transition and a government that serves Syrians of all ethnicities and religions,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama also said that the lack of inclusion in Iraq’s previous government helped boost Islamic State militants there. The administration, however, has already succeeded in facilitating a government transition in Iraq, with the replacement last August of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki with the current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-defeat-hinges-on-stable-syria-obama-says-1424364429

[GreatGazoo]

5. Assad was on our hit list in 2001, well before ISIS was coined

To really see what is going on it is helpful to look at actions and give more credence to the actions of the players than the words of diplomats. For example one day, diplomats call it a 'civil war' -- the next day they say "20,000 insurgents are pouring in from the West.'

ISIS creates the reason for us to invade Syria or to support rebels. Assad gave Russia a port on the Mediterranean and Hezbollah/Iran a foothold next to Israel. That is what this is all about.

Play by play on Syria:

http://www.understandingwar.org/syria-blog

[jakeXT]

6. "Iraq proved that the US could use its military force and the Soviets wouldn't stop them. "

Clark was told that America's intervention in Iraq proved that the US could use its military force and the Soviets wouldn't stop them. Wolfowitz said the US had 5-10 years to clean up the old Soviet "client regimes" before the next super power rose up and challenged western hegemony.

The classified document makes the case for a world dominated by one superpower whose position can be perpetuated by constructive behavior and sufficient military might to deter any nation or group of nations from challenging American primacy.

..

To perpetuate this role, the United States “must sufficiently account for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order,” the document states.

http://work.colum.edu/~amiller/wolfowitz1992.htm

France's Former Foreign Minister: UK Government Prepared War in Syria Two Years Before 2011 Protests

[JonLP24]

13. I'll read & watch right after this post

I've been following this closely -- the two countries Iraq & Syria. I don't really pay attention to Western reporting (NY Times has some good in-depth articles & Newsweek had an excellent report on IS financing) but I'm pretty certain is clear there is a civil war with numerous militias, several Shia militias are there as well IS, Al-Nusra, & the moderate Free Syrian Army etc. Kurds over there to the west gained significant control of the territory which is also hosting displaced refugees. I have to give the Kurdish military & political leadership credit, I haven't came across any reporting (doesn't mean it don't exist but everyone else has many) on human rights violations, though part of the political situation that exists that enabled IS from the West, Kurds are fighting for an independent state & Baghdad is pissed at them.

The best way for Syria to sort itself out is for Assad to step down but I'll be clear, the US does appear to have that kind of interest. A few years ago or maybe more recently the US indicated things were fine and out of the blue accused them of black market nuke deals with Hezbollah & Iran. Also Russia, Iran, & even North Korea (I'm going to have to dig into that one) so it is that kind of relations. All it probably means is Assad wasn't very cooperative with his oil.

It seems more odd the US media has tunnel vision when it comes to IS but they omit a lot when they do report on them, if you didn't dig deeper you'd think IS was the only one committing atrocities. They US should avoid getting involved, multiple sides are aiding different factions with different interests. Kurdish political leadership I respect a lot but US doesn't seem interested in redrawing maps, if it gets to that point -- I think they'll use them & drop them but they've been down this road & appear to have gain & maintained control of territory, probably the safest between Aleppo & Baghdad.

On edit - many people believed Assad imprisoned key people strategically to radicalize those upset with the Assad regime in order to have the opposition discredited by a leading Al-Qaeda type terror group.
http://www.newsweek.com/how-syrias-assad-helped-forge-isis-255631

[libdem4life]

10. "Political Transition" cool phrase that means we just bought another country...all in the name of

peace and fairness and superior minds and our freaking tax dollars. Just found out that we already owe over $100,000 per household on the National Debt and now we're about to charge another war on our national credit card.

[christx30]

2. Because there's no way at all this could come back to bite us in the ass.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. This should turn out well. n/t

[daleo]

7. What could possibly go wrong?

[nilesobek]

8. The weapons will end up in ISIS hands.

[jakeXT]

9. CNN is running a story on captured weapons

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/02/21/newday-wedeman-isis-seizes-u-s-weapons.cnn

[romanic]

11. This is not going to end well.

Didn't this come back to bite us in the ass when it came to invading Iraq?

[jakeXT]

12. The 2003 no vote ?

On March 1, 2003, the Turkish parliament voted to refuse the United States military the permission to invade Iraq from the north on Turkish soil. Although this event was both condemned by the United States Government and hailed by much of the Islamic world as an act of clear defiance, in reality the decision itself hinged on a mere three votes (264-251 with 19 abstentions) and occurred within in a context of official U.S.-Turkish cooperation on Iraq throughout 2003 and beyond. Thus the decision was neither clear nor defiant, but rather the result of a nebulous and conflicted process of political maneuvering within the Turkish government, in spite of the near unanimity of public opinion against the war as well as a set of shared concerns among political elites. In a limited sense, the tense and murky decision-making process reflected Samuel Huntington’s (1996) notion of Turkey as the epitome of a “torn country,” where elites and masses conflicted over different visions for their country’s strategic and cultural orientation.

http://www.thewashingtonreview.org/articles/the-story-behind-turkeys-no-vote-on-iraq-in-2003.html