White House Blames Congress For The Failure Of U.S. Policy In Syria

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington to discuss his plan to combat Islamic State militants operating in Iraq and Syria September 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Washington Times: White House disowning its failed Syrian plan; points finger at Congress

The Obama administration is distancing itself from one of the biggest failures in the war on terrorism: the collapse of its $590 million program to train and equip Syrian opposition forces to fight the Islamic State’s terrorist army.

Defense Undersecretary for Policy Christine Wormuth blamed Congress for the way it wrote the legislation authorizing the program. She said the task was so daunting, “I don’t think at all this was a case of poor execution.”

A House Republican staffer said Monday that a senior White House official contacted the House Armed Services Committee in the summer of 2014 and requested the train-and-equipment program. The final legislative language was written with administration approval, the source said.

WNU Editor: There is a lot of blame to go around on why U.S. policy failed on Syria ....  the U.S. Congress included .... but the majority of the blame still resides with the man who proposed and implementd the policy, and that man resides in the White House.