Syria conflict: UK planned to train and equip 100,000 rebels

[CJCRANE]

The UK drew up plans to train and equip a 100,000-strong Syrian rebel army to defeat President Bashar al-Assad, BBC Newsnight can reveal.

The secret initiative, put forward two years ago, was the brainchild of the then most senior UK military officer, General Sir David Richards.

It was considered by the PM and the National Security Council, as well as US officials, but was deemed too risky.

The UK government did not respond to a request for comment..

More: BBC News

[Warren Stupidity]

1. A great plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh wait...

[Igel]

3. "It was deemed too risky."

So apparently some people had adequate answers to your question and said what could have gone wrong.

The projected downside at the time probably outweighed any positive outcomes. Good thing they didn't implement the plan. Who knows, at this point there might have been an Islamic army that had conquered eastern Syria and much of Arab Sunni Iraq, going so far as to proclaim a caliphate. Glad we dodged that bullet.


Now, if ISIL had remained a plan that was simply put forward by Islamist and never implemented ... That might have been a good follow-up response.


On the other hand, there's what might have gone right. An-nusra and ISIL might have not been so much trained but have suffered losses, instead of letting what amounts to yet another frozen conflict attract support and funds and weapons until one of the combatants could break out.

Alternate histories are seldom inspired. Too easy to get caught up in the past or in an ideology to figure out how to tweak slightly events in a plausible way and then follow their outcome with any degree of plausibility.

[bemildred]

2. Dumb as a box of rocks, and persistent in their folly too. nt