Today, while testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee Kerry
told Rep.
Michael McCaul (R-Texas.) that between 15 to 20 percent of the opposition were extremists and that the number of
“oppositionists” ranged between 70,000 to 100,000, meaning that Kerry believes that a low estimate of the number of extremists fighting in Syria against Assad is between roughly 10,500 and 15,000.
McCaul told Kerry that in the briefings he received the number of extremists fighting against Assad was
estimated to be half of the total opposition force. (NB
35,000 to 50,000)
That the secretary of state and the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee have such vastly different estimates on the number of extremists fighting Assad is worrying and hardly reassuring.
Even if Kerry’s lowest estimates are to be believed there are
at least 10,000 extremists fighting in Syria. Many of these fighters are foreign, and
there is concern about whether they will return to their home countries to carry out terrorist attacks once the conflict is over.
Regardless of how many extremists there are fighting in Syria it is important to remember that it could be the actions of extremists within Assad's opposition, not the Assad regime, that escalates America’s involvement in the conflict. As
Reason’s
Matt Welch highlighted earlier today, Kerry didn’t rule out the possibility of American boots being put on the ground in the event that a group like Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra looked like they were about to get their hands on chemical weapons during yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Nice one... Go U.S of A Ra ra ra.
