Obama seeks $500M to train, equip Syrian rebels

Obama seeks $500M to train, equip Syrian rebels

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the conflicts in Syria and Iraq becoming increasingly intertwined against the same Sunni extremist group, President Barack Obama moved on Thursday to ratchet up U.S. efforts to strengthen more moderate Syrian rebels.

Obama’s request to Congress for $500 million in training and arms to the opposition in effect opens a second front in the fight against militants spilling over Syria’s border and threatening to overwhelm neighboring Iraq. The train-and-equip mission would be overseen by the Pentagon and would mark a significant expansion of previous covert effort to arm the more moderate rebels who are fighting both the extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. SOURCE

Do ANY of you remember a movie a while back called Charlie Wilson’s War? The movie starred Tom Hanks, a libber that was well suited to bring life to the REAL Charlie Wilson.

Charlie Wilson’s War is a 2007 American biographical comedy drama film recounting the true story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson (D-TX) who partnered with “bare knuckle attitude” CIA operative Gust Avrakotos to launch Operation Cyclone, a program to organize and support the Afghan Mujahideen in their resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. SOURCE

Do ANY of you know the REAL story of Charlie Wilson and his war? Do you know the *back story*? The one that the Hollywood media didn’t tell you about? What the efforts of Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakotos brought on? Both good and bad?

The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been referred to as the “Soviet Union’s Vietnam War” or “the Bear Trap”. SOURCE

During the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan the Mujahideen were fighting against the Afghan government and Russian military power was kicking them to death, literally killing the Mujahideen in great numbers and they were in danger of being wiped out.

So, a small group of CIA operatives, backed by a bleeding heart Texas Democrat, Charlie Wilson and Houston socialite Joanne Herring, secured the funds to buy and supply the Mujahideen with better weapons. Among other things, they were given shoulder fired rockets that were capable of bringing down the formidable Soviet Mi-24 helicopter gunship.

Once the Mujahideen had a way to bring down the most powerful and dangerous weapon in the Soviet arsenal the Mujahideen were well on their way to defeating the Soviet army, which, in turn, brought on the fall of the Soviet Union and the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

The U.S. and several other nations equipped the Mujahideen well. The Mujahideen were frugal with their weapons too, they saved them for future use, so to speak.

Fast forward to 2002 and our invasion of Afghanistan.

We went into Afghanistan to exact revenge on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida cohorts but who was al-Qaida? Where did they come from and where did they get the weapons they are still using, to this very day, to kill American troops?

al-Qaida in Afghanistan is what once was called the Mujahideen, and WE are the ones that armed them with many of the weapons they are still using to kill OUR troops.

I would think that someone in Washington would know this story and would remember that for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

There are always consequences.

We need to arm the Syrian rebels and save the poor, downtrodden Syrians and help them gain freedom from a tyrant and establish a real democracy.

That all sounds good if you say it really fast, and don’t take the current actions in Iraq, or past actions in Afghanistan into consideration. Remember this; those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

If WE arm the Syrians, they, the Syrians, will in turn, use those weapons against US if we ever have to go into Syria for any reason. The Syrian rebels are not our friends, they have never been our friends and never WILL be our friends. The simply need what we can supply to them in an effort to beat another group of Syrians and once that fight is done we go back to being *The Great Satan*.

This *train and equip* mission is a mistake, one that will indeed come back to haunt some future administration, and if things were to go drastically wrong it could come back to have an effect on the Obama regime.

That is not a hollow or unimaginable supposition. It’s a lesson backed up by HISTORY, and if a dumb old Texas redneck like me can see it, why then can’t a few Senators and Congressmen grasp the facts of the matter?

Apparently some folks need to study a bit more!