The Pentagon has offered some of the first details of the long-standing plan to create a new “moderate” Syrian rebel force out of whole cloth to fight both ISIS and the Assad government.
Officials say the program is going to involve around 1,000 troops, split between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar. 400 troops are said to be heading for Qatar to begin the training.
Though it was initially believed the training would center around existing pro-US factions in the rebellion, the Pentagon has since revealed they intend to form an entirely new faction.
They’ve also said they believe it will take at least a year for this force to be capable of any operations, from the time that the training begins. It remains to be seen how many recruits they’ll be able to get, and whether these factions will be any more effective than the previous pro-US rebels.
The U.S. spent billions to train the Iraqi "army" only to have them drop their weapons and tanks and run home when faced by a much smaller but more motivated force. Training Afghans produced similar results but with the added result that Afghan soldiers turned their weapons on U.S. and allied troops.
Now, the U.S. plans to train "moderate" Syrian rebels, which seems like an oxymoron since if they were moderate they wouldn't be rebels or fighting alongside the radicals. In fact the U.S. will train and arm more jihadis whose aim is to turn Syria into far right Sunni dictatorship. The only success the U.S. has had is creating chaos, which seems to be the goal of U.S. foreign policy.
"…Pentagon has since revealed they intend to form an entirely new faction." That's because when they went looking for McCain's "moderates" they couldn't find any. And 1000? 1000? Seriously? Against a reported 200,000 ISIS fighters? Right. Surely the "planners" in the Pentagon can't be that stupid. So, what's the real plan? What's going on behind the curtain? One of the first things a budding strategist learns is the advantages (and disadvantages) of numerical superiority.
I used to teach "Never go into a strange room without first identifying the exit". If only this stragecic advice had been heeded in Afghanistan, iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria we might have saved thousands of lives, even more mutilations and even more again of displaced and impoverished human beings.
When will common sense prevail?
Hey they are training a group who are attempting to over throw the existing government. I know syria will limit the response but I think Syria would smiling towards Russia for help with those that train rebels. When are we going to stop getting involved in wars in other nations. Our policy in the middle east has been wrong since we failed to bomb Israel over the USS Liberty
Why not ask Russia and China to try their hand at establishing peace in Syria , They always vote opposite of us in the security council . We have a very bad record in the middle east of always making every thing worse . We have destroyed and ruined at least three countries Maybe Russia and China know something we don't . I think they might make Syria and Iraq better fast and I think they would do it fast and with very little trouble . Lets invite them in to take our place .
This time, from the sounds of it, the Pentagon is going with a realistic plan. No specific timeframe means they will allocate as long as it takes- whether it's one year, ten years, or a hundred years- the training will be allowed to proceed until it's actually effective, not until politicians say it is. And they'll include the training that is required, not what outsiders might think is required. It's clearly about more than just operating a gun. If they have to invent a new language and create a completely new ethic group, to ensure that the new faction is completely reliable, they will do that.
It's great to see some realism for a change.
Syria, the moral graveyard of America
NATO — Nazis is as Nazis fascist does
The last thing NATO nations want is for another country to have an efficient fighting force that may someday challenge NATO supremacy. For both the Afghan Army and Iraq Army were trained by Empire USA, enough said.
For the goal of NATO is to establish supremacy over all the earth, just look at how the fascist coup d’état in Ukraine was orchestrated by NATO, enough said.
Why would someone do something stupid like this? Assad is not the enemy.
Armed rebels, the very essence of "moderation", right?