President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, sources familiar with the matter said.
Obama’s order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence “finding,” broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.
This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad’s armed opponents – a shift that intensified following last month’s failure of the U.N. Security Council to agree on tougher sanctions against the Damascus government.–http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120802
I’ve said it before, we currently live in an era where America’s foreign policy has little to gain and a lot to lose. Since the Clinton Administration, with the obvious exception of 9/11 and GWB’s massive wars, Americans are torn between isolation and international crusaderism and the President has had to squirm between these fickle moods and conduct a foreign policy conducive to American needs: A stable Middle East is best for everyone involved. By “secretly” aiding the Syrian rebels, President Obama is able to minimize the looting of America’s treasury and stemming the tide of American blood spilled on yet another foreign soil. This is in line with the Clinton Foreign Policy established in various actions (see Kosovo, Sudan, etc.): Global Leadership on the cheap. A secure Syria is in line with the “global world order” that every president since Nixon has sought to achieve, but, like Clinton, Obama has maintained the free and almost unilateral exercise of our sovereign power. Turkey may have established the camps, but we will, ultimately, via the CIA, run the new insurgency.
From The Kitchen Cabinet 