Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Despite his announcement that the United States would arm Sunni rebels, President Barack Obama’s policy on Syria remains shrouded in secrecy and confusion.

Officials and members of Congress said the Obama administration has not been briefed on the White House announcement on June 13 that the United States would arm Sunni rebels in Syria.

The officials said that, with the exception of perhaps one or two aides, the government bureaucracy, including the Defense Department and State Department, were not told how to translate the announcement into policy.

“The congressional leadership has not been told of a significant change in administration policy toward Syria, and the impression here is that there is no change, simply rhetoric,” a senior congressional source said.

The source said neither Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel nor Secretary of State John Kerry have provided House or Senate leaders with details of U.S. aid to the rebels. The source said the congressional leadership left recent administration briefings, including one on June 20, with the impression that Hagel and Kerry were not privy to Obama’s thinking on Syria.

“President Obama needs to explain why arming the Syrian rebels is now worth our intervention, when it wasn’t two years ago,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said on June 20.

Reports from Washington, some of them quoting senior officials, told of a split within the administration. They said the State Department, including Kerry, wants a robust U.S. effort to help the rebels, including air strikes.

In contrast, the Defense Department and particularly the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not want anything that could drag the United States into another war. Officials have cited the huge cuts in the defense budget as well as plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2014. Officials acknowledged that the administration has failed to deliver up to 50 percent of the $250 million in non-lethal aid approved over the last year.

“I really am saddened by the fact that two and a half years into this,
we don’t have an inter-agency task force that is effective, efficient and
organized,” an administration official told Foreign Policy.

A leading opponent of any significant U.S. military option in Syria has
been Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Dempsey was said
to have rejected any suggestion, including that by Kerry, for measures that
would reverse the sagging fortunes of the rebels, driven out of numerous
strongholds over the last four months.

A consultant to the Pentagon, Joseph Holliday, said he provided the
Joint Chiefs with a range of options to help the rebels. They included
limited air strikes and a no-fly zone, options rejected by Dempsey.

“I was just trying to say that there are options between all or
nothing,” Holliday, a fellow at the Institute of War, said.

Congressional sources said the CIA has been quietly arranging for arms
supplies, financed by Saudi Arabia, to the rebels. But they said Obama and
his leading aides have refused to acknowledge that the rebels would need
much greater assistance to withstand the Assad military offensive. Over the
last week, Obama has ruled out such measures as air strikes, a no-fly zone
and a humanitarian corridor.

If you’re going to be on the pointy end of the spear, regardless of
where that is … knowing you’re going in with the full political support of
the national leadership is critical,” a congressional staffer told Foreign
Policy. “Who can argue that that exists right now?”

  Chaos: Hagel, Congress have not been briefed on Obama’s Syria strategy, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kerry, Sen. Ted Cruz, Source: Hagel, Sunni rebels