• Obama will say he may authorize strikes in Syria, and that he doesn't need Congressional approval for it, although he'd like it. No such strikes are imminent.
• We will retrain the Iraqi military

John Kerry gave an short version today in a speech in Baghdad, before leaving for Jordan. He reiterated no U.S. ground troops, but left open the possibility if "something very, very dramatic changed."

In addition, the President of the United States and other leaders of other countries have eliminated the notion of their forces being engaged in direct combat unless, obviously, something very, very dramatic changed. That’s the way it is today, and that’s the way it’s going to be. In the Middle East today, he said ground troops in Iraq are a possibility if "something drastic changes." Obama has ruled out ground troops.

Here's a description of what the "train and equip" program for the rebels might entail, based on Obama's original request to Congress to do so a few months ago. The risks:

An enhanced train-and-equip effort would entail various kinds of risk: (1) reputational/operational risk if U.S.-supplied arms were used in war crimes or transferred to violent extremists; (2) risks to U.S. trainers based in neighboring states who might be attacked by regime proxies; and (3) policy risks, including the possibility of blowback (e.g., that a train-and-equip program might inadvertently empower extremists) and escalation by Syria, Hezbollah, or Iran.

Here's the latest map from the Institute for the Study of of War. ISIS seems ahead.

ISIS, meanwhile continues to march to the beat of its own drummer. It's been releasing photo montages of its workers cleaning the streets, setting up an old age home, and doing other good deeds. Today it released these photos of its latest group of recruits training at the Shaddad Al-Tounisi Camp in Aleppo. Nothing seems to move them off their mission of establishing a unified Caliphate state in the middle east.

ISIS has not claimed credit for yesterday's massacre of 45 members of al Ahrar al Sham and the Islamic Front. But there are multiple reports now agreeing with Orient News that it was a combination of a chemical attack and suicide bomber, by a fighter from Liwa al-Dawood called Hussein Muhammed Tamaa, who infiltrated the meeting. This is the same group that until recently was aligned with the "moderate rebel" Free Syrian Army and defected to ISIS. It has also been reported that Liwa al-Dawood is the group that had James Foley and gave him to ISIS as a gesture of its sincerity in defecting.

Last summer, when there was talk about aiding the rebels to oust Bashar, the shifting alliances were a big deal.

The constantly shifting alliances among the opposition have troubled U.S. senior politicians in the past and prevented them from sending heavier weaponry to the FSA to fight Assad’s forces. Last summer, President Obama announced the existence of a CIA-led program in Syria that would arm and train select opposition groups.

At the time of the announcement, many politicians claimed the administration did not have a good enough understanding of the opposition and the weapons could end up in the wrong hands. For months, amid escalating violence in Homs and Aleppo, the Obama administration refused to send heavier weaponry, such as portable anti-aircraft missiles, to Syria, fearing they would eventually be used against the West.

So what's changed? These rebel groups seem to float with the wind. One day they are moderate, only interested in taking out Bashar, and the next day they may be with ISIS. Hopefully, it's more than political pressure on Obama to "do something" about ISIS, which wasn't our problem until we began the air strikes against it. I'll try to keep an open mind during his speech, but I'm still suspicious this is more mission creep and will lead us right into another full blown war we can't win and will result in enormous cost, both in dollars and human lives.