Obama Struggles to Make Syria Pitch for Real This Time

President Barack Obama has only a few days to convince lawmakers that a policy he has long avoided is now crucial to combating the Islamic State: the large-scale training and equipping of Syrian rebels.

The request, first debuted in a presidential speech at West Point on May 28, would authorize the Defense Department to equip vetted members of the Syrian opposition with arms and training at camps in Saudi Arabia. But because the administration showed little interest in lobbying lawmakers to support the plan after Obama unveiled it months ago, many in Congress are having trouble taking the administration’s renewed sales pitch at face value.

"I’m not satisfied yet, but we’re still working at it," Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said.

The Obama administration hoped to attach the training program to a must-pass government funding bill scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday. But the request raised a number of concerns and questions among Republicans about the vetting process, the strength of the opposition Free Syrian Army, and the scope of the program. As a result, House leadership postponed the vote on the funding bill, otherwise known as a continuing resolution. 

"We delayed action on the continuing resolution yesterday to consider the president’s request for authorization to train and equip the Syrian rebels that are fighting ISIL," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said on Thursday. "There are still questions and concerns that remain."

For longtime Hill backers of the Syrian opposition, Congress’s ambivalence on this issue is the direct result of the administration’s refusal to make the train-and-equip program a priority sooner.

"Many of us certainly feel that way," said one Democratic congressional aide.

"It doesn’t feel like the administration even wants this," a GOP congressional aide said after a closed-door administration briefing in July.

But following the Islamic State’s beheading of two American journalists and the demonstrated brutality of the group also known as ISIS and ISIL, enlisting moderate Syrian rebels is now a top administration goal.

Currently, the CIA is training and providing small arms to fighters in Jordan who have been scrutinized for potential ties to extremists while Washington allows Persian Gulf countries to give them anti-tank missiles. Obama’s new proposal would put in place a Pentagon program that would supplement or replace the CIA effort, which critics said was too modest to be effective.

Now the White House is making up for lost time through a full-court press of briefings and meetings with lawmakers to convince them to act immediately. But the going isn’t easy.

After exiting an all-member House briefing with senior Obama administration officials on Thursday, retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) came out hard against the train-and-equip plan. "There is no thought-out strategy on how to defeat this very real threat to the existence of the United States," Bachmann said. "So there is no way that I could possibly support what the president is asking the Congress to do in his strategy." 

In contrast, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said: "If done right, it is a good proposal to put a ground force in Syria. The more [the president] talks about hitting ISIS wherever he can, including with airstrikes, I think he’ll gain a lot of support from Republicans."

The divisions within the Republican Conference have delayed a continuing resolution vote until next week or possibly later, forcing lawmakers who want to return to their districts to campaign to extend the pre-election session to Sept. 29.

"We’re doing our due diligence here and discussing all of this with our members," Boehner said. "And frankly, it’s the right thing to do."