The US suspended nonlethal aid to Syrian opposition groups after an incident in which an extreme Islamist group stole “nonlethal” equipment. This group isn’t moderate, but also fights Al-Qaeda, which makes one wonder what each group is fighting for? Whether it is for material gains or grievances the groups continue to become more radical in appearance and action. Although the US may be supporting rebel groups with military equipment through the CIA, it hasn’t been able to find a strong moderate leader. It is even supposed that US backed rebels simply stole everything from the warehouse and disappeared. The many factions make it difficult to pinpoint a leading group. As well as allows for groups to hide, take undue or due credit. These are the same groups that battle moderates and Al-Qaeda questioning what everyones intentions are in the the conflict, greed or grievance. They have recently killed civilians and kidnapped foreigners out of neighboring countries.
The US has had a hard time finding even just a reliable group that has enough support to be effective. The whole worlds had hard time just trying to find any group with a clear message. Too make matters worse much of the aid that rebel groups receive comes from private donations often from foreigners, most notably Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The donors tend to target more extreme and even known terrorist groups as they’ve been deemed the most effective fighters. Only polarizing and antagonizing different the factions making the situation even more turbulent. Finally the UN has found the Assad regime guilty of using chemical weapons multiple times on its own innocent civilians.
What is the UN, US, or any other country to do without at least one moderate faction to at least begin negotiations and start peace? Will the international community get involved as conflict begins to spillover in the region?
As you mentioned above it is a hard situation to react to when there are so many rebel groups in the area. I do not think the aid we were giving in the first place was having that great of an affect on the current situation in Syria, which is why I think they were quick to pull the plug on the non-lethal aid. As for the the international community getting involved if things escalate in Syria is a pretty good probability that the UN as well as other actors near Syria will react if the conflict crosses any border.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest problem that other countries have when it comes to providing aid to rebel groups in Syria is the unknown prevalence of any one group. With this in mind it makes governments apprehensive to support a cause that may not have enough support to become the successor when this civil war is done. If the UN does get involved then who would they be aiding most, or would they simply be there to regulate against the use of chemical weapons, and provide care for civilians injured in the mix? With the lack of a strong leader countries like the US should be less willing to provide aid because it simply is too uncertain where the aid will actually end up.
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