| Best two weeks of the Obama presidency, yessir... |
The stated U.S. goal is to train and equip 5,400 rebels per year, and military officials said last week that they still hope for 3,000 by year's end. Privately, they acknowledge the trend is moving in the wrong direction.
On June 26, 2014, the White House said it was asking Congress for $500 million for a three-year train-and-equip program.
| About $100,000 per trainee... |
The main problem thus far has been finding enough Syrian recruits untainted by extremist affiliations or disqualified by physical or other flaws. Of approximately 6,000 volunteers, about 1,500 have passed muster and await movement to training camps in other countries. Citing security concerns, the Pentagon will not say exactly how many are in training.
Officials said that as of Friday, the number in training had dropped below 100 and that none has completed the program. Dozens who were initially accepted have been sent home during training or quit because of revelations about their background or other problems, according to two senior U.S. defense officials.
| Revelations -- as in, they're murderous thugs who are every bit as bad as ISIS thugs... |
| As we should. But did no one foresee the results? |
"We are trying to recruit and identify people who ... can be counted on ... to fight, to have the right mindset and ideology," and at the same time be willing to make combating IS their first priority, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on June 17.
"It turns out to be very hard to identify people who meet both of those criteria," Carter said.
| In Syria? Really? |
Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, doubts the viability of the training program.
"It is simply difficult to acquire the number of Syrian rebels willing to participate in the training under current parameters," she said.
Abdul-Jabbar Abu Thabet, commander of Aleppo Swords Battalion, a moderate faction that is fighting both Assad's forces and the Islamic State, said he thinks the Americans are more interested in recruiting Syrian army defectors than moderate rebels. He said he would no longer give Americans the names of training candidates from his group, after having done so once and not receiving a U.S. response.
| Did you try calling Huma? |
The Pentagon announced in May that it had begun training 90 recruits in Jordan, but it has refused to give details. Defense officials, however, said last week that training also is underway in Turkey. Eventually it is to be expanded to bases in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Each trainee is receiving a U.S. stipend of between $250 and $400 a month, with the amount set by their skill level, performance and leadership role, said a Pentagon spokeswoman, Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith.
| So $3,000 to $5,000 for a year's pay. That leaves another $90,000 per trainee for ... what, exactly... |
| Same problem in Iraq... |
| So maybe we should have left Syria to its own war... |