(Washington, DC) Secretary of State John Kerry is pledging $123 million dollars in non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels attempting to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. The governments of France and Britain have urged for the provision of armed support to insurgents that have possible ties to al-Qaeda forces in the region. A recent meeting of the rebel al-Nusra Front pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri as recently as April 10th. American leadership appears unconcerned about supporting terrorist forces to achieve regime change despite recent domestic bombings at the Boston marathon.

Syrian rebels are committed to violent overthrow of the current government and are showing no sign of backing down or making peace. Resistance to intervention by the international community is not expected to hold out for long though. The Assad regime has pounded rebels and civilians with punishing mortar strikes and tank barrages in streets that haven’t seen peace since the conflict began in 2011. Two years of constant warfare has government around the world meeting to pursue possible violent interventions on behalf of the al-Qaeda connected militants. Sympathetic parties held a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Istanbul where it was requested that the assembled nations send drone strikes to protect civilians and counter Assad’s air force in order to limit casualties of the people.

American public opinion is against entering into combat with the Syrian government despite US Government promises of non-lethal aid packages. Rebel forces appear to be hopelessly struggling against a well entrenched military that shows no signs of weakening or collapsing. The Syrian government is almost universally despised and is accused of using chemical weapons on its own people. But despite all of this, the international community has been unable to muster the type of support necessary to provide armed responses to overwhelming Syrian aggression.