http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57407804/u.s-pledges-$12m-to-syrias-rebels/

A coalition of more than 70 partners, including the United States, pledged Sunday to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to Syria's opposition groups, signaling deeper involvement in the conflict amid a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone cannot end the Damascus regime's repression.

The shift by the U.S. and its Western and Arab allies toward seeking to sway the military balance in Syria carries regional risks because the crisis there increasingly resembles a proxy conflict that could exacerbate sectarian tensions. The Syrian rebels are overmatched by heavily armed regime forces.

The summit meeting of the "Friends of the Syrian People" follows a year of failed diplomacy that seems close to running its course with a troubled peace plan led by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Indeed, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other participants at the conference in Istanbul uniformly expressed concern that Annan's plan might backfire, speculating that Syrian President Bashar Assad would try to manipulate it to prolong his hold on power.

Clinton said she was waiting for Annan's report to the U.N. Security Council on Monday on the status of his peace plan.

"There cannot be process for the sake of process. There has to be a timeline. If Assad continues as he has, to fail to end the violence, to institute a cease-fire, to withdraw his troops from the areas he has been battering ... then it's unlikely he is going to ever agree," she said. "Because it is a clear signal that he wants to wait to see if he has totally suppressed the opposition. I think he would be mistaken to believe that. My reading is that the opposition is gaining in intensity, not losing."

I'm torn on this but I think it is time to support the rebels, since we are going this far I hope we don't leave them hanging in the breeze if things go wrong.

 

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Sending money is illegal and immoral .... what happens in Syria is none of our business

 

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I wish someone would send us money to overthrow our despotic POS national government.

The french helped the rebellion in our revolutionary war, also. Without them there's a possibility that America would've never been created like it has today

 

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we should send them one of these:

 

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I'd rather send them the entire staff of the New York Times.

Doesn't mean it was right

 

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Not right lawfully, but it was still a decision. It's impossible to say for sure if a decision is going to be moral or not since the outcome isn't always predictable. A decision could just be as immoral to not assist in a rebellion against an oppressive government

 

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France only helped the Americans long ago to try to screw the brits

 

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No, it's not impossible ..The US has no legal claims on Syria or its people ergo any interference in its internal affairs is immoral since we are making a claim that does not exist and the suffering incurred from such meddling makes us culpable





No, again for th lack of any claim as stated before

 

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