U.S. House warily approves arms for Syrian rebels as Iraq rejects troop possibility

The Republican-controlled House voted grudgingly to give the administration authority to train and arm Syrian rebels on Wednesday. The 273-156 vote crossed party lines to an unusual degree in a Congress marked by near ceaseless partisanship. Top Republican and Democratic leaders backed Obama’s plan seven weeks before November elections, while dozens of rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties opposed it. Opponents in both parties framed the vote as a step toward a wider war in a region where American troops have been fighting for more than a decade.

The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission…I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.

President Barack Obama

The proposal, if approved by the Senate as early as this week, would authorize the Pentagon to provide assistance to “appropriately vetted” members of the Syrian opposition and require the administration to give Congress a detailed plan for helping the rebels before that assistance could begin. In Baghdad, Iraq’s new prime minister told The Associated Press in an interview that his government wants no part of a U.S. ground combat mission. “Not only is it not necessary; we don’t want them.”

syrian rebels Middle East