According to a final report from U.S. Central Command, issued as the third and final training class winds down, $385 million was spent on President Obama’s Syrian rebel training program to train 180 graduates, with only 95 of them currently active in Syria.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had some harsh words for President Obama’s $500 million plan to arm and train a tiny unit of carefully-vetted “moderate” Syrian rebels and send them into battle against the Assad regime, ISIS, and al-Qaeda.
On Wednesday morning, a member of the al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, posted a photo online of a colleague posing with his “brand-new U.S. machine gun,” which he claimed was handed over by the U.S.-trained Division 30. He even threw in a jaunty quote from Scarface: “Say hello to my little friend.”
The Obama administration has thrown in the towel on a plan to spend $500 million on training “moderate” Syrian rebels to fight ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the regime of Bashar Assad.
After days of insisting that all American gear was under the “positive control” of U.S.-trained New Syrian Force rebels, the Pentagon finally admitted over the weekend that al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front seized vehicle and ammunition from the token “moderate” force.
Another massive embarrassment for the Obama administration, as U.S. officials finally admitted on Friday—after days of strenuous denials—that the latest group of “moderate” New Syrian Force rebels surrendered at least some of their weapons and vehicles to al-Qaeda in exchange for “safe passage” into Syria.
Reports from several sources earlier this week claimed that the second wave of seventy “moderate” Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the United States had either surrendered or defected to the local al-Qaeda franchise, the Nusra Front. The Pentagon has cast doubt on these accounts.
As mentioned last week, President Obama’s desultory attempt to influence the bloody chaos in Syria with a mere handful of U.S.-trained and equipped Syrian rebels brought contempt and stunned disbelief from across the Arab world.
The Jerusalem Post presents a dismaying roundup of reactions from the Arab world to the performance of the U.S.-trained and equipped New Syrian Force, the tiny group of “moderate” rebels that hit the battlefield just a few weeks ago, and was swiftly picked apart by al-Qaeda, with nearly two dozen of its fighters and officers taken captive.
The increased level of Turkish cooperation with American efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS) has produced the uncomfortable side effect of the Turks declaring open season on our most vital ally, the Kurds. At least the Turks are making good on their promise to allow more extensive American use of their airbases, as the Pentagon says armed US drones are now operating from the Incirlik Air Base.
