Because of the ominous nature of the situation in Syria along with growing skepticism as to how long the cease-fire can last, American intelligence officials are scrapping together a secondary plan of action to reinforce arms shipments to opposition fighters. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, “The Central Intelligence Agency and its regional partners have drawn up plans to supply more-powerful weapons to moderate rebels in Syria fighting the Russia-backed regime in the event the country’s six-week-old truce collapses, according to U.S. and other officials. The preparations for a so-called Plan B center on providing vetted rebel units with weapons systems that would help them in directing attacks against Syrian regime aircraft and artillery positions, the officials said.”

Barack Obama will need to sign off on the measure before it’s implemented, though his administration is holding out hope that it won’t have to be utilized: “Officials said the CIA has made clear to its allies that the new systems, once agreed upon, would be given to the rebels only if the truce and the concurrent political track toward a lasting peace — Plan A — fall apart and full-scale fighting resumes.” But that scenario is a distinct possibility. The Syrian government and rebel leaders are in Geneva for negotiations, and according to the Journal, “Violations of the truce have increased in recent weeks, raising fears that it could fall apart at any moment and spurring intelligence agencies to ready the Plan B package. Obama administration officials acknowledge that the cessation of hostilities has become increasingly shaky.” However, “these officials say they don’t think it is on the verge of collapse.” Well, the Islamic State supposedly isn’t an existential threat, either. Before we send more arms, we need to figure out how to stop the “moderates” from fighting each other using weapons supplied by different U.S. agencies.