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Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Is the opposition to Assad the Muslim Brotherhood backed by Al Qaida?

If so WHY are the US giving them arms?

There's nothing that will get me to stop watching your interview than cutting back to the fucking interviewer just nodding her stupid head and "listening intently" for no reason. Damn is that annoying.

The rationale for Assad in using chemical weapons is a group punishment of sorts for aiding the rebels. The conflict has been locked in back and forth territorial plays between Assad and the rebels. Dumping chemical weapons in a contested zone is a powerful psychological disincentive to the local civilian population in aiding the rebels.

Comparing this to Iraq '03 is misguided. Obama has shown no evidence of being a neoconservative, politically any serious involvement would be hugely damaging. There's good evidence to suggest that once Assad goes, there would be a civil war between the rebels for control. From there the rebels who come to power will likely be Islamic fundamentalists.

Besides, with fracking and CSG, the US is in a vastly different situation visa vi oil and gas, and either way Syria is hardly an oil slick. There's really little reason to get involved besides humanitarian reasons to act as disincentive to future dictators, at this point and I think it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

@Buck

The opposition to Assad is ragtag of mostly the local Sunni majority as the local Christians, Druze and Alawites have generally aligned themselves with Assad. They have little to nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The reporting I have read is saying the strongest insurgents who are doing the weight of the fighting are generally fundamentalist Islamists, they also seem to be receiving the bulk of the funding from Saudi Arabia and Qatar unofficial groups who are sponsoring them.

The US is giving arms to purportedly moderate groups through the Supreme Military Council and Syrian Opposition Coalition political organisations, however it is not clear how extensive this program is.

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by kulpims.

http://i.imgur.com/sl4bKtc.jpg

Bravo for advocating for actual diplomacy rather than more arms.

We need more people on the cable news shows talking like this.

Prolllllly not gonna happen...

Syria has been producing their own CW's for at least three decades.

The entire world knows this, and you can find their GPS data even on Wikipedia. By all accounts, yes, the Syrian government has deployed CW's on its own people at least three times in the last 18 months.

But, even with all of this knowledge, the US has no legal standing to do anything about it.

I can't tell if the basement-bottom budget of this show is commendable or laughable.