If I were old enough to remember it, I’d be saying: This sounds a lot like when we armed Saddam, or the Taliban, or installed the Shah, or supported Mubarak, or Zardari.
With skills like these, who needs training?
It’s sheer lunacy! We all know the adage ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’, but the case here may be ‘Today’s rebels, tomorrows jihadis’
To hear that the US are considering giving weapons and training to them, let alone going as far as ‘refusing to rule it out‘ it’s turd-stompingly retarded.
Haven’t we established this pattern well enough that the public can see it coming a mile away? We decide we don’t like a political regime, arm their opposition to the teeth, sponsor a bloody civil war and replace the old dictator/leader/democratically elected ruler with our own special puppet knob, who finds that they lack the support/experience/ability necessary to improve the country, which brews some pretty desperate discontent (usually indicated by soaring food prices and low levels of education and employment), and they are either thrown out by a violent, snarling anti-western nutjob, or turn into one to appease their people.
Ah, it reminds me of playing computer games against my sister. I’d teach her just enough to encourage her to play the game, but never enough to give her the skills to beat me.
The quality of life and security for the citizens has been largely restored and we are a large part of why that has happened.