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US halts Syrian rebel training effort; to focus on arms supply
Economic Times ^ | 10/1015

Posted on 10/10/2015 9:34:56 AM PDT by markomalley

The US will halt its troubled USD 580 million programme to train Syrian rebels to combat Islamic State and instead provide arms directly to existing rebel units already engaged in the battle with the dreaded terrorist group, a top official has said.

"We have had significant challenges associated with our training-and-equip program related to the counter ISIL mission and we've been looking at ways to address those deficiencies," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said yesterday.

Under the new policy, the US would provide equipment packages and weapons to a select group of "vetted leaders and their units" in their fight against ISIL (also known as ISIS or IS), he said.

"At the same time, we have seen opportunities emerge where we've been able to equip forces fighting ISIL on the ground in Syria and seen them make significant gains. So today's announcement represents an ongoing process where we aim to learn from what works in our strategy and aim to make corrections where we see things that aren't working," he said.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said this was bound to happen.

"The complete and utter failure of this poorly conceived programme was predictable from the start which is why I spoke out strongly against it and opposed it when it came before Congress last year.

"The Administration had no defined objectives, no effective strategy and no way to ensure that these fighters and the weapons, ammunition and equipment we provided them would not end up in the hands of ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra and other extremist groups who are our enemy," Gabbard alleged.

Rhodes, however, claimed that the US is not ending the Pentagon's USD 580 million train-and-equip program that was initiated as part of the counter-ISIL effort last year.

"We are not ending that program. What we're doing is we're pausing the element that too fighters out of Syria and aimed to train them and then help them go back into the country.

"However, the program itself continues because a significant amount of resources dedicated to this program focus on the equipment that would be provided to opposition forces. We will be using that equipment in different ways by trying to get it more directly into the hands of people who are in the fight. So it's an evolution in terms of how we apply those resources," he said.

"We are also not ruling out any future training, but we are acknowledging a pause in the way in which we've approached the program and conducted the training out of the country to date. And this focus on building on what we've seen work, which is developing relationships with leaders and units, and being able to get them supplies and equipment as they are in the fight against ISIL," Rhodes added.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 10/10/2015 9:34:57 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley
Vetted leaders and units, eh?

More lies.

2 posted on 10/10/2015 9:36:41 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: markomalley

I bet the CIA/SpecOps guys in the field are pulling their hair out right now.


3 posted on 10/10/2015 9:38:39 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: markomalley

I would like to know who the US is arming? Are we infact fight Russia in Syria? The only group we should be arming are the Kurds.


4 posted on 10/10/2015 9:46:15 AM PDT by Lopeover (2016 Election is about allegiance to the United States)
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To: Timber Rattler
Yep. This isn't an admission of a half-billion dollar failure. It is an admission that with Russian participation bammy and his Muslim sympathizers need a more direct pipeline to funnel arms to his Muslim brethren in ISIS.

Sure, bammy and his cohorts in crime will provide arms to "the rebels" all right. However, they will somehow manage to "lose" through battlefield losses, fog of war, etc. these arms and they'll be "found" or captured, recovered etc. by ISIS fighters.

In other words we (the US) are now even more directly going to back (through funding and armaments) radical Islam. Is there any doubt left that obama is at the very least a Muslim sympathizer if not an outright practicing Muslim himself? Any of you lib lurkers out there - don't even try to justify his actions or even begin to say he's not Muslim. You'll choke on your lies.

5 posted on 10/10/2015 9:47:05 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: markomalley

So more US weapons supplied to the Caliphate troops which will be used to expand terrorism and actions against the Christian and secular West.


6 posted on 10/10/2015 9:48:33 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: markomalley
Barack Obama, World Renown Military Strategist And Tactician,
Patiently Explains Basic Warfare Concepts To America's Generals


7 posted on 10/10/2015 9:53:28 AM PDT by Iron Munro (The wise have stores of choice food and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20)
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To: markomalley

Just nuke the region instead, you worthless cowards.


8 posted on 10/10/2015 10:08:09 AM PDT by Objective Scrutator (All liberals are criminals, and all criminals are liberals)
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To: markomalley

It is their religion that all infidels must be murdered, why do we give them weapons?


9 posted on 10/10/2015 10:27:30 AM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: markomalley

Guaranteed this administration is soiling their pants because Vlad has sent word he’s finding a troubling amount of US arms in the enemy’s hands.


10 posted on 10/10/2015 12:25:10 PM PDT by bgill ( CDC site, "we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: markomalley

Supply arms to the only group fighting the barbarians: the Kurds!


11 posted on 10/10/2015 3:42:54 PM PDT by upcountryhorseman (An old fashioned conservative)
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