In Hearing, House Panel Seems Split on Syria Strike
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and THOM SHANKER
Published: September 4, 2013
NY Times
Mr. Royce said that he was also troubled by the lack of international support, a point Secretary of State John Kerry sought to rebut on Tuesday when he said that France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were backing a military strike.
In an exchange in Wednesday’s hearing with Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, Mr. Kerry insisted that much of the Syrian opposition was moderate.
“There is a real moderate opposition that exists,” he said.
Mr. Kerry said that there were 70,000 to 100,000 “oppositionists.” Of these, he said, some 15 percent to 20 percent were “bad guys” or extremists.
Mr. Kerry said that the United States had persuaded Qatar and Saudi Arabia to funnel their assistance to the moderate leadership “in a disciplined way,” discipline that the secretary of state said might break down if the United States did not take military action.
Responding to this point, Mr. McCaul said that he had been told in briefings that half of the opposition fighters were extremists.
Mr. Hagel said that he basically backed Mr. Kerry’s analysis of the makeup of the Syrian opposition.
“We are seeing some movement in the right direction,” Mr. Hagel said, asserting that moderate elements of the Syrian opposition were being strengthened.
Thursday, September 05, 2013
THIS POST IS FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES
I'm not sure what "moderate" really means in the context of the Syrian Civil War...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I listened to New Mexico's Tom Udall being interviewed on his no vote on NPR news earlier. Of course I approve of the vote but he spent most of his time deploring Assad's brutality, calling for "better" remedies to
deal with it... while inferentially and explicitly portraying the US government as essentially well meaning and innocent, certainly incapable of significant war crimes. Ask the Iraqis about that, Tom. Follow that poll with a poll of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
while inferentially and explicitly portraying the US government as essentially well meaning and innocent, certainly incapable of significant war crimes.
This is part of the Exceptionalism Myth.
Post a Comment