Ash Carter: U.S. has trained only 60 Syrian rebels

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

The highly-touted U.S. effort to train and equip a moderate force of rebels to fight the Islamic State in Syria has so far produced only 60 fighters — much less than expected, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday.

 

"This number is much smaller than we hoped for at this point," Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying the rigorous vetting process had weeded out more potential recruits than expected. The program had been expected to produce some 5,000 trained fighters in a year.

 

"It's going to take some time, obviously, to get the numbers up to the point where they can have an effect."

 

Carter's admission was the latest sign of concern that the Obama administration's strategy against the extremist group in Syria has not lived up to expectations. Syria always has been an afterthought for the administration's approach, behind Iraq, and the extremists continue to hold on there in spite of recent gains by Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

 

[Valin]

@Geee

 

More Here

[Geee]

Obama Administration Spent 500 Million Dollars to Train 60 Foreign Fighters

 

The Obama administration continues to have difficulty in gaining support for its failing strategy to defeat the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL).

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey inadvertently ignited a firestorm on Tuesday when they testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the administration’s continually evolving plans for countering the Islamic State.

Carter made news when he revealed that the administration’s $500 million program to train and equip “moderate” Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State had so far produced only 60 vetted candidates that were in training.

 

This is a far cry from the 5,000 fighters that are supposed to be trained by the end of the first year of the program.

http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/10/obama-administration-spent-500-million-dollars-to-train-60-foreign-fighters/

[nickydog]

If I had been a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee I would have buried my head in my arms and laid it on the table in front of me. And probably would have moaned.