have heard from the opposition is that they ve gotten nothing. right. the free syrian army is hanging out, they re on the end of the limb. they ve got a lot of support on the ground, but the most not the best fighters because, certainly, their tactics are nothing that we as americans would ever support. but the al-nusra guys, they re getting weapons and plenty of them, and so they re being very effective on the battlefield, but they re being supported by some of the gulf states. the free syrian army is not being supported, and that s who in the end if this all comes down to assad loses because maybe we degrade it too much and he doesn t get enough support from russia, but if the rebels were to win, then the question becomes does al-nusra and their guys fight it out with the free syrian army guys martha: i m sorry to interrupt you, but before i let you go, if we had given that support we said we were going to start giving back in june, do you
easier for some of the more dangio dangerous with elements of al qaeda? colin, thanks very much for coming in. great to be here. how much of a problem is this that some of the biggest applause lines will come from al nusra and al qaeda elements and the opposition once they see the u.s. target positions of the syrian military? some of the al nusra guys have been on facebook saying the united states might come after them, too. i think the administration has been reluctant to get too deeply involved because it didn t want to assist extremists in this way. i think the strikes will be limited in a way to minimize that risk. if you weaken the assad regime, do you automatically help al qaeda and al nusra and elements in the resistance? it depends on what types of units and capabilities we end up targeting.