U.S. bombings of Islamic State targets inside Syria are not strengthening the regime of strongman Bashar Assad, who launched his own simultaneous bombing campaign to snuff out rebel opposition, a top White House national security adviser said Sunday.
The use of air power and other resources from the United States and other allies, coupled with ground forces from moderate opposition rebel groups in Syria, is the way to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS or ISIL, Tony Blinken, White House deputy national security adviser, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Sending in American ground forces would play into the terrorists’ hands, he said.
“The moderate opposition is the common denominator to both being able to be a counterweight on the ground to ISIL, and then over time also being a counterweight to Assad,” Blinken said. “Building them up enables us to have forces on the ground that can deal with ISIL as we use our air power and other unique assets. If you are going to change the dynamics in Syria, if you are going to get to a political transition that moves Assad out, you have to have a strong moderate opposition. We’re going to do both.”
A coalition of U.S.-led forces began bombing ISIL strongholds in Syria last week. Reuters reports Assad also launched an offensive, raising fears he is using the allied attacks against the terrorists to bolster his own efforts to quash all opposition to his regime.
Syrian forces targeted areas held by a variety of insurgent groups, including those backed by Western forces, Reuters reported.
Blinken also defended President Obama’s claim that he has the power he needs to wage war in Syria and Iraq, where the Islamic State holds vast swaths of territory, under the 2002 congressional resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, which Obama has said should be repealed.
That authorization, along with a similar resolution passed in 2001 authorizing the use of force to go after al Qaeda and its affiliates, grant the president sufficient authority to wage the campaign without returning to Congress, Blinken said. However, he said it would be best if a new use-of-force resolution is passed.
Blinken reiterated the White House stance that sending American combat troops into the war zone would not be a smart move.
“What we are not going to do is fall into the al Qaeda trap of sending hundreds of thousands of Americans back,” Blinken said. “That’s exactly what they want. They want to bog us down, tie us down and bleed us.”
