Is this the Obama Administration’s version of the Bay of Pigs?
Shocking new revelations prove that Obama’s plan to train foreign anti-ISIS fighters in Syria has become a total disaster. And U.S. weapons may have ended up in terror group Al-Qaeda’s hands.
The administration has been struggling to explain its military strategy to “destroy and degrade” ISIS with an air campaign and its poorly executed programs to train, assist, and equip local moderate forces.
Obama initially promised to train 5,000 anti-ISIS fighters in Syria when he asked Congress to approve $500 million in supplies and training. Officials said last week that fewer than 200 are going through training now.
After the first 54 fighters were sent in to fight in July, they quickly dispersed or were defeated. Asked how many remain active on their initial mission, Gen. Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, “It’s a small number. … We’re talking four or five.”
And recent supports suggest that one of the U.S. trained fighters immediately took money and weapons provided by the American government to a local Al-Qaeda affiliate.
These stunning developments came at the same time defense officials scrambled separately to respond to allegations that they skewed intelligence assessments to give a rosier picture of conditions on the battlefield.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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