Wednesday July 8, 2015

I've Been Thinking:

Remember the brilliant plan that the United States hatched to train Syrian fighters to battle ISIS and al Qaeda?

The original plan was to train 5,400 Syrian fighters every year.

These fighters were to be the future of Syria. First, they were going to defeat ISIS and al Qaeda and then they would take over Syria and oust Assad. That was the plan.

Well, so far, only 60 Syrians have been trained. That's right - 60. I did not forget to put the zeroes on.

We know this because it is the testimony that US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter gave before Congress yesterday. Carter says, and rightly so, that the difficulty is vetting the fighting to make certain that they are not the enemy. If they made a mistake in choosing fighters, the US would be training and arming people who, in the end, would be fighting for the other side.

The real problem is that most people fighting in Syria are the enemy.

Very few Syrians can pass the vetting process. Not because it is so rigorous --- but because most people were at one time or are currently affiliated either with ISIS, al Qaeda or Assad.

In his prepared remarks to Congress the secretary of defense explained that the United States is trying to streamline the program and to enable the vetting process to find and train more appropriate recruits.

Carter put it this way: "We are also refining our curriculum, expanding our outreach to the moderate opposition, and incorporating lessons learned from the first training class."

Suffice it to say the United States needs another program. This one is not going anywhere.

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