The Patriot Post® · Pentagon Considers Training Syrian Rebels

In its search to find a strategy that will do more than drop munitions in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon is still seriously considering training and arming “moderate” Syrian rebels to fight Bashar al-Assad – and probably take on ISIL when the time’s right. The program will expand what the CIA was already doing in the region. The Washington Post reports, “The proposed CIA buildup would expand a clandestine mission that has grown substantially over the past year, U.S. officials said. The agency now vets and trains about 400 fighters each month – as many as are expected to be trained by the Pentagon when its program reaches full strength late next year. … ‘We need a little more urgency in helping the moderates, and the agency was viewed as the best way to get that going fast,’ said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the Syria debate.” This is a strategy of an administration trying to do anything to avoid political backlash because this strategy has worked so well in the past when Saddam Hussein fought Iran and Osama bin Laden attacked the Soviet Union. More…