Another example of a close advisor to Hillary Clinton who is a harfliner (neocon policy) on the Middle East …
now works at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council.
Kerry distances himself from Clinton backing of arming Syrian rebels
(CNN) – The president’s top diplomat said Friday he wasn’t looking “backwards” at the White House quashing of a proposal last summer to arm the Syrian rebels, but was instead looking at what the United States will do regarding helping the opposition.
Last summer President Barack Obama’s national security team, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA Director David Petraeus, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, backed a proposal to provide weapons to Syrian rebels but, U.S. officials told CNN on Thursday, the White House blocked the idea. Secretray of State Kerry added:
“We are evaluating right now. We’re taking a look at what steps, if any – diplomatic particularly – might be able to be taken in an effort to try to reduce that violence and deal with the situation.”
At his November 14 press conference, Obama presented the rationale that became the administration’s mantra: “We have seen extremist elements insinuate themselves into the opposition, and one of the things that we have to be on guard about – particularly when we start talking about arming opposition figures – is that we’re not indirectly putting arms in the hands of folks who would do Americans harm, or do Israelis harm, or otherwise engage in actions that are detrimental to our national security.”
Frederic C. Hof, who was Obama’s special adviser for Syria until last September, said “It’s more complicated than just ‘arm the rebels.'”
Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Hof said there are “legitimate questions” about who would end up using the weapons, as well as about weapon proliferation.
(Atlantic Council) Dec. 21, 2012 – Americans are now mourning the slaughter of innocents in Connecticut. Syrian children are terrorized, traumatized, injured, and killed daily. Americans wonder how to regulate the ownership of combat weaponry in the hands of private individuals. Syrians contemplate the horror of a regime that knows no limits in the methods it employs to stay in power, and an armed opposition no doubt tempted at times to mimic the behavior of those who do the unspeakable without regret or remorse.
What will be next? Chemical warheads mounted on Scud missiles launched in the general direction of rebel-held areas? Alawite villagers slaughtered by armed men seeking to avenge atrocities by a regime that has cynically and shamelessly put at risk the Alawite community?
What can Syrians and the world do to prevent a nightmare scenario? First, the opposition should accelerate the excellent organizational progress it is making. The new Supreme Military Council — which pointedly excludes the loathsome jihadist group, Jabhat al-Nusra — must be hard-wired into the Syrian Opposition Council (?). The fragmentary nature of the armed opposition is, for all the headaches it causes, an admirable survival mechanism. Yet an armed movement operating without the benefit of clear political direction and a defined objective runs the risk of alienating the very people it is trying to defend.
Frederic C. Hof is a senior fellow of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council and the former Special Advisor for Transition in Syria at the US Department of State. Mr. Hof waswas a founding partner of AALC’s predecessor, Armitage Associates L.C.
