The Hill News

I was heartened to hear Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s forceful and passionate condemnation of the Syrian government’s escalating atrocities against its own people. Then I learned that another branch of our government, the Defense Department, was forking over $1 billion to the largest single supplier of the Syrian military’s weapons. Even worse, the company, Rosoboronexport, is a state-run company of one of the two United Nation’s Security Council members who vetoed the most recent emergency resolution against the escalating violence and mass murder â€" Russia.  
 
I don’t know why a contract with this company is so important to the Pentagon, but whatever is being purchased is not worth the price. The Pentagon is making a $1 billion mistake that is helping the number one supplier of weapons to the killing machine of Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, it is undermining U.S. credibility as the Obama administration calls for the international community t! o increase economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime.

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