Obama: ‘It’s Always Been a Fantasy’ that We Could Have Armed Syrian Rebels

“With respect to Syria, it’s always been a fantasy — this idea that we could provide some light arms or even more sophisticated arms to what was essentially an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth, and that they were going to be able to battle not only a well-armed state, but also a well-armed state backed by Russia, backed by Iran, a battle-hardened Hezbollah. That was never in the cards.”