Syria under Bashir Assad (closed end 2014)

[Dayuhan]

In practice, the actual problem is that there is an immense (and growing) gap between what the intel is recommending and what the politics (i.e. political decision-makers) is doing.

Intel does not in itself recommend anything. It's information. It's one input into recommendations and decisions. I don't think any of us have access to the intel or the decision making process, and if we did we wouldn't be talking about it.

And I 'think' Obama (and all sorts of his supporters) is badly in need of an excuse for doing nothing at all - simply because he 'knows better'.

And what comes out of doing nothing... well, should a better example appear in the time of my life than this ISIS affair, I'll eat my hat.

As the Mark Lynch piece that David linked to points out:

Had the plan to arm Syria’s rebels been adopted back in 2012, the most likely scenario is that the war would still be raging and look much as it does today, except that the United States would be far more intimately and deeply involved... As catastrophic as Syria’s war has been, and as alarming as the Islamic State has become, there has never been a plausible case to be made that more U.S. arms for Syrian rebels would have meaningfully altered their path.

Did you actually read it? It's worth a look, even (especially) if you don't agree.