Hungry?
Former Secretary of State, Madeline “We think the price is worth it” Albright, and former National Security Advisor Stephen “Here’s those Niger Uranium Forgeries you requested, sir” Hadley, that is.
The United States should prepare to use greater military power and covert action in Syria to help forge a political settlement to end the country’s civil war, according to a bipartisan report to be released on Wednesday.
Produced by a task force led by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Democrat, and former U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, a Republican, the report amounts to a bipartisan rejection of President Barack Obama’s decision to limit U.S. military engagement [against the government of Syria] in the nearly six-year civil war. …
“Isolationism is a dangerous illusion,” said the report, which was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday. It calls for outside nations to help wind down conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Yemen and back home-grown reform throughout the region. …
“The United States should be prepared to employ air power, stand-off weapons, covert measures and enhanced support for opposition forces to break the current siege of Aleppo and frustrate Assad’s attempts to consolidate control over western Syria’s population centers,” the report said. …
The United States has two main lines of effort in Syria: a covert CIA operation that backs opposition forces [al Qaeda fighters] trying to oust Assad and a wider military operation that uses air strikes and special forces to target Islamic State and al Qaeda fighters [the latter only for the last two weeks].
The report argues U.S.-backed opposition forces should also be allowed to strike Assad government targets. [Huh? You mean U.S. forces should also be allowed to strike government targets, as if the U.S.A.’s al Qaeda “opposition forces” are only now being authorized to attack Assad. Just got it right one paragraph ago.]
Asked whether a greater U.S. military effort might yield a bloodier proxy war rather than a political solution, Hadley told Reuters: “It may not work. But one of the things we know is that what’s now going on isn’t working.”
