President Obama will be meeting today with military officials at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants, as House lawmakers prepare for a vote to authorize training for moderate rebels to oppose the extremist group.
Meanwhile, ISIS militants released a 52-second video entitled "Flames of War" that features footage of military vehicles being blown up and promises "fighting has just begun."
In voting to approve a $500 million package to train and equip rebels, "House Republican leaders plan to offer the legislation as an amendment to a broader bill to keep the government funded into December and the Export-Import Bank open through June. The Senate would try to pass the bill by the end of the week," The New York Times reports.
According to a Washington Post story in June: "Up until now, the CIA has clandestinely trained moderate rebels in Jordan and armed them with small arms. The U.S. has also allowed other countries to provide the rebels with anti-tank missiles."
"A vote on the broader use of military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) isn't expected to happen until after Election Day. "'I think after November, there's an opportunity and probably a debate for that, seeing what transpires,' [House Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol on Monday. 'I know a lot of members would want to start to have that debate or have that discussion.'"
The Associated Press writes: "Republican leaders have swung behind Obama's request, though they're not pressuring the GOP rank and file to follow suit. Top Democrats promised the measure would pass."
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey appeared on Capitol Hill to outline the administration's plans to combat the Islamic State.
Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he supports the president's plan, but that if he deemed it necessary at some future date, he "would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of ground forces."
Who are the Syrian rebels the White House hopes to make allies?
NPR's Deborah Amos, reporting for Morning Edition from Turkish-Syrian border, says it's really more about who the rebels are not than who they are.
"What they are not is hardcore Islamists – that's ISIS, that's the Nusra Front, that's Ahrar Al-Sham," Deborah says.
"Those groups are on the ground here in Syria. But what the White House and certainly the people working with rebels here call the 'moderates' are more non-ideological rebels. They put out these core statements that say they are for an inclusive Syria. It doesn't mean they aren't religious. They're conservative Muslims as are most of the country."
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