So apparently the word is that Obama is sending at least 400 troops to train Syrian Rebels in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to take out ISIS. Here’s the lowdown:
DEFENSE ONE – The Pentagon will deploy more than 400 U.S. military trainers and hundreds more supporting personnel to four training sites in three countries as early as March as part of a long-awaited plan to help rebel forces to stabilize Syria.
In addition to the trainers, the U.S. military expects to deploy hundreds of additional U.S. military personnel as so-called enabling forces who will deploy alongside the trainers to provide security and other support at the training sites, according to senior defense officials. Coalition partners are expected to contribute forces as well for an effort that for now is envisioned to train about 5,400 rebel forces each year for three years.
Since December, administration officials have said that training program could begin as early as March in the three countries that have agreed to host the training: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. At least four training sites in those countries are being identified and the plan is to split the approximately 400 U.S. trainers and their accompanying support forces evenly across those sites for what is expected to be a six- to eight-week training cycle.
…
One of the biggest hurdles for the U.S. training program for Syrian rebels is identifying and vetting individuals to train. Defense officials said earlier this month that the U.S. is working closely with other U.S. government agencies as well as partner nations to find rebel fighters who would be candidates for the program.
“That process is very active right now,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters Jan. 6.
But identifying rebel fighters who don’t have ties to Jabhat al-Nusra, the main al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is extremely difficult for a Pentagon with limited resources on the ground.
Still, the Pentagon is confident its forces can identify, recruit and then train a moderate force. American military forces, particularly Special Forces, have decades of experience screening foreign military forces for training, Pentagon officials said.
I’m not buying this for a second. I think the true target of this training is the Assad Regime. In fact the three countries who agreed to host these training missions all believe taking out Assad is crucial if not a top priority:
Qatar:
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has warned that the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State militancy will not succeed as long as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remains in power.
Saudi Arabia:
Reaching that agreement, however, took months of behind-the-scenes work by the U.S. and Arab leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against Islamic State, but not how or when. The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh U.S. commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority.
Turkey:
“Turkish PM @Ahmet_Davutoglu tells me there can be boots on ground but only if the U.S. strategy includes going after al-Assad too,” Amanpour wrote on Twitter.
And there’s also this from the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year:
Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Thursday on CNN’s “New Day” that he had also heard that the White House was shifting its strategy, in part because Turkey and other Gulf states — which are hosting refugees from Syria — were pushing for the removal of Assad.
We all know Obama’s meager attempts to thwart the Islamic State have failed miserably. But then it’s never been a serious campaign to take out ISIS. So the idea that we’re going to train Syrian rebel forces that we haven’t even identified yet to fight ISIS is too much for me to swallow.
This is really about Assad and I suspect before Obama leaves office the Assad regime will have ‘magically’ fallen.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention one tidbit of important information. The Syrian Rebel group that we support signed a truce with ISIS.