Some Bad Ideas of the Free Syrian Army
Rebel methods can be silly, unconventional, dangerous—but whose fault is that?
by DAVID AXE
Most of the roughly 200,000 fighters of the rebel Free Syrian Army are civilians with little or no formal military training. Inventing tactics on the fly, as seen in the video below, the opposition fighters can be as dangerous to themselves as the regime of Syrian Pres. Bashar Al Assad is.
But whose fault is that? The free world led by the U.S. has strongly supported the FSA … with words. But in stark contrast to foreign assistance to the Libyan resistance two years ago, world governments have held back the money, supplies and weapons the Syrian opposition needs to defeat Al Assad’s troops and their allies in Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.
And where Libyan fighters enjoyed intensive foreign training, only a few Syrian fighters have received instruction by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. “We need more training with Western experts,” says Abu Shaher, a spokesman for the FSA’s Farouk Brigade.
Until then, the rebels will make it up as they go … and occasionally get fried after standing behind a comrade firing a rocket-propelled grenade.
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