That FP article by Jonathan Schanzer seems to presume that there is some sort of well-defined pro-Saudi Salafist faction that we are going to 'lose Syria' to if we don't get off our butts and start arming ... who? What, the nice, liberal, secular faction? Can Schanzer identify who these people are, and ensure that they won't share or be taken over by the nasty Salafist jihadist faction? Somehow I doubt it.

I'm not sure how the U.S. throwing money and weapons into the black hole of the splintered and localized Syrian opposition factions is going to accomplish anything, except ensuring that U.S. weapons will be floating around the Middle East killing people for years to come. If we could pick out an organized group and empower them to the point where they could win, that would be one thing, but the Syrian groups make the Libyans look organized. At least Benghazi represented a safe area where weapons could be assimilated and groups could be trained on their use. Weapons pumped into Syria, if they even reached the right hands, would be thrown into battle immediately by people desperate to defend themselves but completely untrained.

And what sort of weaponry do these groups need? They don't need small arms - they need antiarmor weapons, explosives for IEDs, mortars, and heavy machine guns that will allow them to at least defend their neighborhoods against Syrian Army vehicles and artillery. Unfortunately this is also the sort of stuff that could be turned on future American forces or Israeli forces, or indeed forces of the Gulf Arab states. And it would be going to groups that could easily lose it to Syrian government forces, or sell it on to anyone.