The New York Times: Reports on the mixed vote in the House to grant approval to POTUS to train Syrian rebels, the motion was opposed by those who thought it was not tough enough, that being Republicans and those who thought it was the wrong policy, that being Democrats. The article notes the following, " Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, actively and strongly backed the legislation, and both sought to portray it as a modest measure. "
Lets Get Real:
No one thinks that you can take hundreds of rebels out of Syria, then train them and send them back, the training will take time, in that period, Assad and IS will try to gain from the weakness of the rebels, thus when the moderate rebels do go back they will need US Special Forces or they will be wiped out by either enemies. The US has tried troops on the ground in Iraq, and it worked before POTUS removed all the troops in 2011, this was a major strategic mistake, thus the growth of IS. The liberals in the Obama Administration think air power alone will work in Syria and Iraq, good luck with that move, it will not work, you need to hold ground. One can postulate that Obama wants to hand the problem over to his successor, he wants to keep IS and Assad from winning, but will only do enough to keep the problems from making him look weak. The history of Iraq in the 21 Century looks lot like Vietnam, time for leaders to re - read the history of the period.
