Defense Secretary Robert Gates has experience in the unintended consequences of arming rebels: As a CIA official in the 1980s, he funneled weapons to Islamic fundamentalists who ousted the Soviets from Afghanistan. Some later became the Taliban.

President Obama on Tuesday said he would not preclude the possibility of arming the rebels. Pressed on the issue in an interview with NBC News, Obama said, „I‘m not ruling it out, but I‘m also not ruling it in.“