Syrian Rebels Beg for Help From U.S., Israel
The Syrian rebels are loudly airing their frustrations with the U.S. as they ask for outside help, even going so far as to ask Israel for humanitarian assistance. Opposition leaders are particularly enraged after being informed that they shouldn’t expect American assistance until after the presidential election. There are valid reasons to worry about support the rebels because there are Islamists, including Al-Qaeda elements, among them but the secularists’ need for outside support and disillusionment with the U.S. are also things to be concerned about.
The Syrian Support Group, a political arm of the Free Syria Army in Washington D.C., sent a request to the U.S. for 1,000 RPG-29 anti-tank missiles, 720 23mm machine guns, 500 SAM-7 rockets, body armor, secure satellites and $6 million to pay soldiers. Every item was turned down and the reason given has sparked vocal expressions of disgust with the U.S.
A Free Syria Army logistics coordinator named Louay Mokdad said that requests for satellite images, an operations room and information that can be useful in tracking Assad’s chemical weapons were turned down as well. He slammed the U.S. for providing “weak and inadequate” support.
A representative of the group said, “Basically the message is very clear; nothing is going to happen until after the election, in fact nothing will happen until after the inauguration. And that is the same message coming from everyone, including the Turks and Qataris.”
Abdulbasit Sieda, the Kurdish president of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group based in Turkey, said ”We would like to say to President Obama that waiting for Election Day to make the right decision on Syria is unacceptable for Syrians. We cannot understand that a superpower ignores the killing of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians because of an election campaign that a president may win or lose.
Click here to read the rest of my FSM/IRD article.
2012-07-30 23:49:17
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