In 2013, the CIA launched a program to aid “moderate” rebels in Syria who would fight both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Nusra (al Qaeda’s official Syrian affiliate). The opposition has since been expanded to include the Islamic State. The aim was to empower “trusted commanders,” who had to sign written agreements, submit payroll information about their fighters, and detail their battlefield strategies in order to qualify for aid. Those that qualified ended up getting a pittance of aid. One trusted commander got 16 bullets a month for his fighters. Weapons requests routinely took two weeks for approval, by which time any opportunities to kill the enemies were gone, and sometimes requests were denied. One commander got three dozen rifles after requesting 1,000. One moderate rebel group, Hazzm, captured tanks from the Assad regime, and then couldn’t get cash for shells or fuel. The rebel pay was about half what Nusra and the Islamic State were paying their soldiers. As one frustrated Hazzm trusted commander put it:
We walk around Syria with a huge American flag planted on our backs, but we don’t have enough AK-47s in our hands to protect ourselves.
And another trusted commander complained:
Why did you give us hope if your were not going to do anything about it?
His fighters quit the CIA program and formed an alliance with an Islamicist brigade.
Representative Eliot Engel (N.Y.) the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said:
We need to get them the materials they need to sustain themselves. It’s the right thing to do.
If you promise to help someone fight a war, you should help them fight it, but this an administration that’s notorious for appearances over substance and not keeping its word. Ask the millions of Americans who found out they could not keep their doctors or their insurance plans under Obamacare, and had to pay more for inferior replacement plans. One last quote from a trusted commander:
We thought going with the Americans was going with the big guns. It was a losing bet.
The Wall Street Journal, “Covert CIA Mission to Arm Syrian Rebels Goes Awry,” 1/27/15
Yes, betting on the US government keeping its word has become a losing proposition, big time.
Reblogged this on Starvin Larry.