A Few Good Men

Obama is backing the Smart Diplomacy with the High Priced Military:

Small Number of U.S.-Trained Syrian Rebels Still Fighting

A top U.S. military commander for operations in the Middle East acknowledged on Wednesday that there are only four or five fighters left from the first group of 54 Syrian fighters that had been trained by the U.S. as part of a $500 million program.

What's more, there are only 100-120 fighters in three more classes currently being trained, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

Our Man With A Plan! Do keep in mind - Obama is looking for Syrian rebels who will promise not to actually continue their rebellion against Assad but instead fight ISIS. That is not hopeless, since ISIS has surely displaced and annoyed some locals, but evidently the cost is absurd.

Comments

[narciso]

some people make the comparison with the bay of pigs, that parallel in incomplete, with no air cover, with most of the armor sunk on one of the ships, the brigadistas, fought until they ran out of ammo, one of them was my kinsman, who spent a year in the cuban prisons, before he was released,

[Threadkiller]

part of a $500 million program.

$500,000,000÷$12,000=41,666.666666666

I give this story 41,667 Ramos Piñatas.

[daddy (Vote for Pedro!)]

there are only four or five fighters left from the first group of 54 Syrian fighters

How come they're such crappy fighters? The ones overrunning the walls and cops in Hungary seem like they're pretty damn good fighters?

[Jane on Ipad]

Maybe $45 million just wasn't enough money for 5 people.

[Buckeye]

Lot of payoffs required. By the time the money got to the fighters, it was 45 cents.