The US Congress has approved President Barack Obama’s plan to train and arm moderate Syrian rebel groups for the ground battle against Islamic State militants.
In a bipartisan show of support that came against the backdrop of the barbaric beheading of two American journalists, the Senate gave the go-ahead to the plan on Thursday, a day after the House of Representatives gave its approval. But there was also opposition to the measure from both sides for different reasons.
While thanking the speedy Congressional approval, Obama said the Syrian opposition forces to be trained and armed will be fighting “both the brutality of ISIl terrorists and the tyranny of the (Bashar al-) Assad regime”.
“We had already ramped up our assistance, including military assistance, to the Syrian opposition. With this new effort, we’ll provide training and equipment to help them grow stronger and take on ISIl terrorists inside Syria,” he said.
This training programme will be hosted outside of Syria, in partnership with Arab countries, and it will be matched by the US’s increasing support for Iraqi government and Kurdish forces in Iraq, Obama said, while reiterating that US forces deployed in Iraq will not have a combat mission on the ground.
Obama’s repeated rejections of any ground offensive may be welcomed by fellow-Democrats and public opinion that does not want the US to be drawn into another war, but these have not gone down well with the Republicans as also the Generals, both serving and retired.
Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis told a Congressional panel on Thursday that a blanket prohibition on ground combat would tying the military’s hands.
In a clear criticism of Obama’s plan to restrict the US offensive to airstrikes, Mattis said: “Half-hearted or tentative efforts, or airstrikes alone, can backfire on us and actually strengthen our foes’ credibility.”
“We may not wish to reassure our enemies in advance that they will not see American boots on the ground,” Mattis said in comments that came just two days after Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke of situations in which a ground deployment might become necessary – only to be publicly rejected by President Obama a day later.