Will arming rebels turn the tide of syria's war?

President Obama has authorized the delivery of weapons to Syrian rebels after the U.S. concluded that government forces had indeed used illegal chemical weapons, which Obama had described as

a "red line." The rebels have faced a run of stinging setbacks recently. First, they lost the strategically important city of Qusayr on the Lebanese border, after thousands of

Hezbollah militants from Lebanon poured in to assist Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Now, the Syrian military is launching an offensive against another rebel stronghold,

Aleppo. Will U.S. weapons help the rebels turn the tide? SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE

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morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Many experts say the aid could have helped the rebels win earlier, but now

it's too little, too late. Con Coughlin at Britain's _Telegraph_ says Obama could have propelled pro-democracy demonstrators to victory if he had backed them fully when their

uprising began more than two years ago. Now, though, al Qaeda fighters have hijacked the rebel cause, he says, and 93,000 people have died in a fight that true supporters of democracy can no

longer win. At the very least, though, it will be a lot harder for Assad to finish off the rebels now that the U.S. is stepping up military aid. David Butter of Chatham House, an

international affairs think tank, tells ITV that Obama appears to be responding to Assad's victory in Qusayr, in a bid to prevent the regime from crushing its opponents with help from

Iran and Hezbollah. The U.S., Butter says, "probably judges that the rebels need critical support to prevent regime breakthroughs in Deraa (south) and Aleppo (north)." But for that

to happen, the rebels will need the U.S. weapons fast. "I think the rebels are in trouble," Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy tells _The New York

Times_. "Speed is of the essence. The regime's momentum needs to be brought to a halt." Some analysts think that dragging out the war might be what the Obama administration is

aiming to accomplish. Daniel W. Drezner at _Foreign Policy_ suggests that arming the rebels is just an extension of the same "unspoken, brutally realpolitik policy towards Syria

that's been going on for the past two years." Drezner says the U.S. wants to force Iran, Hezbollah, and Assad into "doubling down and committing more resources" to this

war; that requires doing just enough to make sure "rebels are holding their own or winning." A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features

from TheWeek.com So how far will Obama go? The Obama administration is balking at sending anti-aircraft weapons, over concerns that al Qaeda-linked rebel factions might get their hands on

them and use them to take down an airliner. But Obama has reportedly approved sending anti-tank weapons, and diplomats say the U.S. is even considering imposing a no-fly zone along the

Jordanian border.