U.S. Gives Up Effort To Train Syrian Opposition Forces

[Purveyor]

Source: CBS NEWS

By DAVID MARTIN CBS NEWS September 28, 2015, 7:05 PM

President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday met privately, about their opposite views of the 40-year-old war in Syria that has led to the rise of ISIS and set off an enormous refugee crisis.

All this on the same day the Pentagon was forced to concede a key part of the president's Syria policy is a dismal failure. The program to train and equip Syrian opposition forces has been suspended.

The $500-million program had once been a linchpin of the strategy to defeat ISIS but so far has proved a fiasco. It was put on hold after a band of fighters turned over their U.S.-supplied equipment to terrorists linked to al Qaeda.

An embarrassing development Russia's Putin could not resist mentioning in his address to the United Nations.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-halts-effort-to-train-syrian-opposition-forces/

[Eugene]

1. Can't say it's a total failure.

Looking on the bright side, contractors are $500 million richer.

[moondust]

2. Bingo.

Who got all the money?

[Igel]

18. Without having the ledgers ...

Some went for support staff. You pay the people for a year and that counts for something. Esp. with food/board and transportation.

The fighters got paid. They needed food/board. Transportation, no doubt. Probably rent for the training space.

They had to provide weapons and things like bullets or uniforms during training.

And then that materiel that was turned over cost something. Even if it was already on the books, it had to be bought from another part of the DOD.

Don't forget the DOD folk in the back of the house, coming up with the training program and materials. These aren't the folks on the ground--these are the military personnel, their office space and their support staff, plus any consultants. The bureaucracy must be fed. If nothing else, think of it as Keynesian stimulus.

(Of course, for many the hundreds of DOD staffers in the background and the materials consumed won't matter. They'll hear "consultants" and figure that all the other expenses amounted to perhaps a can of soda.)

[christx30]

3. #DefensePortfoliosMatter n/t

[David__77]

4. I'd like to hear the presidential candidates' current perspectives on Syria.

That would be of great interest to me. And, really, it would make for an interesting campaign issue.

[Purveyor]

7. Here's one: Hillary Clinton Sees U.S. Policy Failure in Training of Syria Rebels

Hillary Clinton said in an interview that aired Monday that the dearth of Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime and the Islamic State extremists in the Syrian civil war amounts to a U.S. policy failure.

In an interview on MSNBC, Mrs. Clinton was asked about a report last week that only a handful of U.S.-trained rebels are now fighting in the Syrian conflict.

U.S. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III told Congress that an American program to train and equip a rebel fighting force had fallen drastically short of its goal.

“This is a failure in policy, isn’t it?” interviewer Chuck Todd asked Mrs. Clinton.

“Well, it is,” Mrs. Clinton said.

more...

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/09/28/hillary-clinton-sees-u-s-policy-failure-in-recruiting-of-syria-rebels/

[David__77]

9. I don't get if she thinks the failure was the policy itself, or how it was operationalized.

Within the context of candidates' current perspectives on Syria, I'd like to hear what are candidates' positions regarding what should or should not be done, and by whom, at the present time.

[CanadaexPat]

12. She advocated arming them for the last several years.

Obama resisted due to fears of arms reaching ISIS or al Queda but eventually gave in.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

21. aND WASNT SHE AT ONE TIME INVOLVED AND SUPPORTIVE OF THIOS POLICY?

[Oneironaut]

5. That was such a terrible decision.

Seems like, of the fighters that didn't defect to ISIS (along with their US-made weapons), most either died or deserted. That policy was an utter disaster.

I say we just wash our hands of the conflict completely. We're only a hindrance at this point.

[Fred Sanders]

6. I wish someone would have warned the Pentagon that weapons given to roving bands of thugs

in a war torn Middle Eastern nation might get abused.

But who could have foreseen that?

Remember who called for more and more weapons for these thugs, because the media seems to have forgetten again?

If memory serves, it was this guy and his fucked up bloodthirsty party of stupid:

[CanadaexPat]

13. And others, including Hillary Clinton.

[Fred Sanders]

14. The Commander in Chief is the Secretary of State, you say? Why did no one tell me??

The stretches of truth and leaps of logic to Get Hillary are embarrassing.

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. No one said that, but Hillary as SOS was an advocate of a "more robust" policy.

I'm glad Obama didn't listen to her on attacking Syria.

Her stance on Syria is in line with her other war hawk positions. Her foreign policy ideas are one of my strongest objections to her candidacy.

[CanadaexPat]

22. She advocated for it and Obama disagreed

As she relates in her book.

[former9thward]

25. Embarrassing to you Fred

[840high]

27. Learn some facts.

[Jesus Malverde]

8. Neocons

Gonna have a sadz

[bemildred]

10. You mean we aren't going to double down this time?

The Pentagon is not calling the shots? Or perhaps it has learned just a smidgen of modesty about it's capabilities?Or perhaps the Neocons are not in charge for once?

[TwilightGardener]

15. The Pentagon wasn't driving this bus. It isn't with the ISIS war, either. Prez. O wanted this

training program, inexplicably, after years of bashing the idea of arming/training rebels, while simultaneously allowing the CIA to do so. The rules for vetting the trainees, and their mission (ISIS only, not Assad), and the fact that they were not protected or supervised very well on the ground, pretty much doomed the whole thing to failure. I don't know why Obama is pretending he had nothing to do with this debacle.

[bemildred]

16. It's a fucking disaster, that's why. nt

[Oneironaut]

23. B/c politicians always look for someone else to blame.

[Lychee2]

24. Usually, their subordinates.

And that role is accepted with the job.

[bemildred]

28. Pretty much.

Being old now, I am appalled and amused at the way young people will throw themselves on their swords for corrupt politicians.

[MisterP]

29. or we're busy in Yemen and Afghanistan instead

[Javaman]

11. 40 year old war? nt

[Lychee2]

17. So we created ISIS and now we're going to desert them?

That's not very nice of us.

[ozone_man]

19. That's the unspoken truth.

We may have created the "rebels," but we let Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar create ISIS. LIHOP

[24601]

26. What? Are we giving on on all 5 of them? n/t