During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, spokesman Josh Earnest attempted – but miserably failed – to defend the President for saying that the U.S. would not engage in a proxy war in Syria despite evidence that the administration is sending ammunition to Syrian opposition forces.
A reporter asked Earnest, “I want to understand your mindset when you say the U.S. will not engage in a proxy war in Syria… The President made that very clearly understood – but I’m trying to understand or square what’s your definition of a proxy war if we’re funding opposition fighters and they’re fighting against Russian supported forces."
“Isn’t that sort of the definition of a proxy war?” he stated.
Earnest then provided a long-winded answer in an attempt to refute the question at hand:
“Well, I guess, the goal of U.S. involvement inside of Syria is focused on our counter-ISIL strategy, and that is to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. And some of the support that we’re providing to elements of the Syrian moderate opposition…is geared toward trying to drive ISIL out of different regions of Syria – principally in northeastern Syria.
“We did talk at the end of last week about the renewed support that the United States will be offering to Syrian Arabs. The Department of Defense did confirm over the weekend that Air Force aircraft did drop small-arms ammunition to Syrian-Arab groups fighting ISIL in northeastern Syria. And that successful airdrop provided ammunition to those Syrian-Arab groups whose leaders were vetted by the United States and have been fighting to move ISIL out of northeastern Syria. That’s what our strategy is, and that is a strategy that is focused on ISIL… and it stands in stark contrast from the unilateral efforts of the Russians to indiscriminately strike opposition groups with the goal of propping up the Assad regime. It is clear that our intentions are quite different from theirs.”
So, according to Earnest, the U.S. is providing ammunition to Syrian rebel forces who are being targeted by Russian airstrikes that are being carried out to prop up the Assad regime. Ergo, the U.S. is funding opposition fighters and engaging in a proxy war in Syria. Pot, meet kettle.
Can someone clear up the confusion here, if any?
Watch the question and answer here.
For the full press briefing, check out the video below.
In other news, Earnest said that it’s possible that the President would tune in to watch the first round of Democratic debates in Las Vegas Tuesday night, but will most likely be doing some “channel surfing” because of the MLB playoffs.
Priorities, people.