Posted on 03/14/2016 12:44:22 PM PDT by DeathBeforeDishonor1
The Pentagon wants to reboot a failed program designed to train Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State, even though this same $500 million dollar program had almost nothing to show for itself.
The goal was to train 5,000 fighters, but the first class of 54 melted and scattered after being attacked by the al-Nusra front, the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. The second class of so-called moderate rebels handed over at least 25 percent of their U.S. military gear to al-Nusra.
Pentagon officials now say they’ve identified what elements of the program to tweak to make sure they don’t repeat the same mistakes, The Hill reports. That the program is restarting is not surprising, as the intent was only to implement a brief interlude or operational pause.
According to Gen. Lloyd Austin, a key feature of the switch will include a shorter training program and concentration on a much smaller and select number of fighters.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/14/obama-admin-wants-to-restart-failed-program-training-syrian-rebels/#ixzz42uNmRfP9
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