From the WSJ…
John Kerry, U.S. Military Clash on Approach to Syria’s Rebels
Pentagon Opposes Direct Military Intervention Again
Frustrated by the stalemate in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry has been pushing for the U.S. military to be more aggressive in supporting the country’s rebel forces. Opposition has come from the institution that would spearhead any such effort: the Pentagon.
Mr. Kerry and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power have advocated options that range from an American military intervention to weaken the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to using U.S. special operations forces to train and equip a large number of rebel fighters. Such moves would go far beyond the U.S.’s current engagement.
In recent White House meetings, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have pushed back against military intervention, said senior officials.
They say the risk is high of being dragged into an open-ended foreign entanglement.
Both sides have agreed on the need to create an expanded program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels. But the Pentagon worries the Assad regime would halt cooperation on the removal of chemical weapons if the military training starts now. Officials said Mr. Kerry has now agreed to a delay.
The disagreement between a hawkish State Department and a dovish Pentagon, the officials from both sides said, is the latest chapter in an agonizing three-year administration debate over Syria.
But of course, it’s still ‘Damn the Torpedoes, Full-Speed Ahead…’
‘http://youtu.be/W-WSdGasWpg
As I’d pointed out, very early on during this entire, sordid Syrian False Flag op … See: Chemical Attacks In Syria – Cui Bono? And, More Evidence Points To The Syrian Rebels
So, it’s always nice to see more significant proof emerge confirming early hunches, from ‘credible’ sources like Seymour! However belated it may be!
Anyways, as Sey had asked…
Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.
Now, it’s been fascinating in reading and watching, the varying reactions to Sey’s recent ‘revelations,’ from both the Left and the Right!
Now, Col. Lang had a great response to Sey’s post, and, to neocon Michael Rubin’s ridiculous hatchet-job directed at the Col and Sey…Seymour Hersh’s Latest Conspiracy Theory Here is the Col’s response on the John Batchelor Show (19:20-30:30)
I liked how b at MOA, and the barflies, had cast some aspersions upon Sey’s repute…!
Hersh: Turkey Behind Sarin Attacks In Syria
…The story, as Hersh tells it, makes sense and fits the known circumstances. Erdogan has bet his house on the fall of the Syrian government and continues his best to achieve that.
Turkey obviously supports the current onslaught on Latakia and the Armenian town of Kessab in north-west Syria which is led by Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra. Recently over 1,000 mercenaries were flown from north Jordan to Turkey to join the fight. In the last week anti-tank missiles from U.S. production, of which the Saudi government recently bought 15,000, have been used in these attacks.
As the U.S. is unable or, more likely in my view, unwilling to stop Turkey on its way to become another Pakistan something else has to happen to change Erdogan’s calculations. What could that be and who could provide it?
What a flying Clusterf*ck…! *gah*
