US in deep trouble with it's ISIS/Turkey/Kurdish policies

[walrus]

@you lot.

Remember our current Syria strategy? We're training a bunch of moderate nutjobs to fight the Islamic nutjobs. Turns out the moderate nutjobs aren't doing so well.........

A Pentagon program to train moderate Syrian insurgents to fight the Islamic State has been vexed by problems of recruitment, screening, dismissals and desertions that have left only a tiny band of fighters ready to do battle.
Those fighters — 54 in all — suffered perhaps their most embarrassing setback yet on Thursday. One of their leaders, a Syrian Army defector who recruited them, was abducted in Syria near the Turkish border, along with his deputy who commands the trainees....Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has acknowledged the shortfalls, citing strict screening standards, which have created a backlog of 7,000 recruits waiting to be vetted. Mr. Carter has insisted the numbers will increase.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/wo...-in-syria.html

A Syrian insurgent group at the heart of the Pentagon’s effort to fight the Islamic State came under intense attack on Friday....The American-led coalition responded with airstrikes to help the American-aligned unit, known as Division 30, in fighting off the assault....The attack on Friday was mounted by the Nusra Front, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda. It came a day after the Nusra Front captured two leaders and at least six fighters of Division 30, which supplied the first trainees to graduate from the Pentagon’s anti-Islamic State training program.
....“This wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” said one former senior American official, who was working closely on Syria issues until recently, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence assessments....Division 30 said in a statement that five of its fighters were killed in the firefight on Friday, 18 were wounded and 20 were captured by the Nusra Front. It was not clear whether the 20 captives included the six fighters and two commanders captured a day earlier....

A spokesman for the American military, Col. Patrick S. Ryder, wrote in an email statement that “we are confident that this attack will not deter Syrians from joining the program to fight for Syria,” and added that the program “is making progress.”
....[A senior] defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence reports, described what he called “silver linings” to the attack on Friday: that the trainees had fought effectively in the battle, and that coalition warplanes responded quickly with airstrikes to support them.




http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/01/wo...roup.html?_r=0




So depending on how you count it there are either three or eleven moderate nutjobs left alive. Out of a whopping total of 54 trained nutjobs since we stated this policy a couple of years ago. Impressive.

I don't know Kirk, with Iran, China and Russia backing Bashir Syria unfortunately becomes a chess game and the people living their are the ones that suffer while read about it and discuss it in the paper. I remember shortly before the doody hitting the fan there was a nyt magazine special about Bashir and his wife. His wife lived a very opulent lifestyle. I think it was one of the things that pissed the Syrian people off. It's a shame, Syria has a beautiful history with some of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Bashir actually took time to protect those Christians who are now being butchered by the caliphate. With the middle eastern history I know many of us in the US would love to visit it but who wants to visit a war torn country, I can go to Chicago for that. It's a shame the whole Damn thing, I hope the best for the people of Syria, I'm sure they are just walking around like WTF. People just want a decent life. We take so much for granted and then read and pontificate about it like we know what the he'll is going on.