Before their disastrously unsuccessful training campaign for rebels in Turkey, the US was training another Syrian rebel faction in Jordan, with an eye toward them taking the south of the country. Interest in the group quickly dried up when their expansion stalled after a few border villages, with most of the gains in the area belonging to al-Qaeda.
Those rebels, affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), report that their western aid has evaporated in recent months, and that they are losing ground across the south, with ISIS in particular advancing around Daraa and Quneitra, giving them a new presence along Syria’s borders with both Jordan and Israel.
Al-Qaeda already controlled most of the area on the immediate frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but recent Israeli strikes against Syrian military forces in Quneitra mean neither they nor the southern FSA rebels are able to put up much of a fight in advances by the Islamist groups.
The FSA leaders complain that the training program for them, which halted about five months ago, is paying them much lower wages than al-Qaeda or ISIS, noting their fighters earn just $70 a month, compared to $300 for an al-Qaeda fighter or $500 for the well-funded ISIS. They want that, much as with the Yarmouk Martyrs’ Brigade, the FSA forces in the south could start defecting to the rival factions outright if the situation continues to worsen.
“HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL” SO MUCH FOR IDEOLOGY.
Those guys need to immigrate to state; hell they can make higher wage here by robbing gheto and Section 8 unmarried with kids welfareb mommas of their food stamps.
Throw in a liquor or 7/11 store robbery now and then and free rent from ugly white women, mug some piunk dope pusher save his coins and in a couple years they could
go home find some little boys and girls , and retire.
No wonder do many young worthless malrs are headed for Europe tjey can earn more by staying on couchrs andbwatching telly.
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israel, a safe haven for terrorists?
It's interesting that when the USG talks about how they're training all these moderate fighters, they never mention that they are paying them once the so-called training is complete. So, they're US government contractors then, eh? I wonder how the non-working people in the states feel about the US paying foreigners instead of creating jobs for Americans here.
Probably much the same way as Russians feel at seeing what little of their country's wealth the oligarchs Putin fronts for haven't stolen being spent trying to seize Ukrainian territory that nobody in Russia care one whit about. And much the same way as Ukrainians feel at seeing Russia's wealth being spent sending contractors' mercenaries into Ukraine to pose as "rebels" so as to allow Putin to grab bits (if not all) of their territory.
Inevitably, ISIS will win this. The French lost in Indo-China and Algeria. The US lost in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Soviets lost in Afghanistan. Why should it be different in Syria? The Israelis will probably resort to their usual useless tactic of air raids, which will be as ineffectual as they are in Palestine and Lebanon. With Putin in full cry, the fun will be to see how this impacts Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan (to say nothing of the Crimean Tatars).
Nice to know they were so well vetted for their "ideological commitment." Remember how well the "surge" worked in Iraq? I guess we just paid the Sunnis more back then.