Obama Administration Ends Pentagon Program to Train Syrian Rebels

[bemildred]

Source: NYT

LONDON — The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria.

Pentagon officials were expected to officially announce the end of the program on Friday, as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter leaves London after meetings with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, about the continuing wars in Syria and Iraq.

“I wasn’t happy with the early efforts” of the program, Mr. Carter said during a news conference with Mr. Fallon. “So we have devised a number of different approaches.” Mr. Carter added, “I think you’ll be hearing from President Obama very shortly” on the program.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/world/middleeast/pentagon-program-islamic-state-syria.html?_r=0

[nyabingi]

1. How about putting the CIA back on a leash

while you're at it, Mr. President?

They are the group who has been actively working with all sorts of unsavory, head-chopping extremists and they are being allowed to do it without questions being asked.

Neocons like Paul Wolfowitz had hoped to have Assad knocked off in Syria before another world player grew strong enough to check American power, and it looks as if we failed to get the job done in time. Other neocon targets, Iraq and Libya, weren't so lucky.

[leveymg]

2. More bang for the buck. At $100 million each, I can't imagine why.

At that rate, each trained Free Syrian Army soldier could have his own F-15E and M1-A2 main battle tank, with 5 Humvees thrown in. Of course, the equipment would be handed over to ISIS at the first opportunity.

"Run away! Run away!"

[humbled_opinion]

3. Wasn't this John

Mclames program? He probably owes the American people an apology for being wrong ... AGAIN...

[TwilightGardener]

5. No, sadly, it was Obama's.

[humbled_opinion]

18. I am pretty sure

the neocon hawks were behind this didn't McCain go to Syria and meet with these insurgents?

[Xolodno]

4. John McCain critisizing Obama for...

...failure of his wet dream in....3.....2....1...

[TwilightGardener]

6. Own the fail, Ass Carter.

[Lychee2]

7. Does this mean the US is going to give up trying to conquerSyria?

Will the US leave Syria to Assad and the Russians?

[d_legendary1]

9. I don't even know why the U.S. is there

Why are we wasting our resources on something we won't ever own?

[uawchild]

14. natural gas pipelines?

Some people think the move to depose the alawitte-shiite Assad regime in Syria is the desire by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, with US approval, to get a sunni regime in power so natural gas pipelines can be built to supply western Europe.

[killbotfactory]

15. Assad won't build a pipeline because it would compete with his ally Russia

So we gotta do what we gotta do...

According to former French foreign minister Roland Dumas, Britain had planned covert action in Syria as early as 2009: "I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business", he told French television:

"I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria. This was in Britain not in America. Britain was preparing gunmen to invade Syria."

The 2011 uprisings, it would seem - triggered by a confluence of domestic energy shortages and climate-induced droughts which led to massive food price hikes - came at an opportune moment that was quickly exploited. Leaked emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor including notes from a meeting with Pentagon officials confirmed US-UK training of Syrian opposition forces since 2011 aimed at eliciting "collapse" of Assad's regime "from within."

So what was this unfolding strategy to undermine Syria and Iran all about? According to retired NATO Secretary General Wesley Clark, a memo from the Office of the US Secretary of Defense just a few weeks after 9/11 revealed plans to "attack and destroy the governments in 7 countries in five years", starting with Iraq and moving on to "Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran." In a subsequent interview, Clark argues that this strategy is fundamentally about

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/30/syria-chemical-attack-war-intervention-oil-gas-energy-pipelines

[uawchild]

17. excellent article!

Thanks for that link!

[d_legendary1]

16. So we're doing this for our buddies in Europe

Makes sense. I know Putin's got'em by the balls (I believe he supplies Europe with nat. gas). Thanks for clearing that up.

[Eugene]

8. U.S. program to train, equip Syrian rebels not ending: U.S. official

The word I am seeing in the latest headlines is "overhaul."

Source: Reuters

Politics | Fri Oct 9, 2015 8:55am EDT

U.S. program to train, equip Syrian rebels not ending: U.S. official

LONDON

The U.S. military program to train and equip Syrian rebels is not "ending" but is instead being refocused, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday, ahead of an announcement on overhauling the troubled U.S. effort.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reporters traveling with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, said some U.S. training and vetting of Syrian forces would continue. The official did not elaborate.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/09/us-mideast-crisis-usa-training-idUSKCN0S31GG20151009

[LittleBlue]

10. Lol. Pentagon failing in Syria again. Our foreign policy is a mess

We're like a giant baby stomping on his Legos. Good at wrecking stuff and throwing fits but little else.

[wordpix]

11. really, what IS our foreign policy in the ME? Sometimes I think Trump

has it right ----ISIS and Assad hate each other, Sunnis and Shiites hate each other. Let them go at it.

I know that's simplistic but it's not all wrong.

[LittleBlue]

12. If aliens were watching our behavior right now

They would probably assume we're attempting to destabilize the Islamic world.

Hard to believe our government officials are so blatantly stupid.

[Major Hogwash]

13. Well, this helps to explain a lot.

I always wondered how Jimmy Fallon got the Tonight Show gig.
Turns out he had a few strings pulled by a relative in British government!!