Worked to his satisfaction before.....
Posted on 09/22/2014 9:43:22 AM PDT by GonzoII
Gen. Michael Nagata is promising to build a new force to destroy ISIS, but lawmakers worry he has been given an impossible mission.As lawmakers prepared to take a risky and fateful vote on Obama’s plan to train and equip the Syrian rebels, the man who assured them it could be done was Gen. Michael Nagata, Obama’s point man for the mission to build an ISIS-killing army in Syria.
There are skeptics both inside and outside the government who doubt Obama’s new plan to arm the Syrian rebels can work. First of all, the administration has said for years that the moderate opposition can’t be a reliable partner for the United States in Syria. Only last month, Obama said that the rag-tag bunch of “former doctors, farmers, and pharmacists” could never win their civil war and the whole idea that arming them earlier would have made a difference has “always been a fantasy.”
Then Obama made a complete reversal, announced that portions of the Free Syrian Army were now vetted enough to help the U.S. fight against ISIS, and called on Congress to vote to give him authority train and arm them. Congress went along, but only after hearing from Nagata, who briefed both House and Senate members and staffers in classified settings and told them how he would get it done. Those briefed said they were impressed by the general but remained concerned that Obama’s plan was fatally flawed.
Nagata has experience in the area. U.S. military officials say Nagata helped devise much of U.S. special operations support for Jordan. These officials also say Nagata also has worked on plans with the CIA at the secret Jordanian base used to train Syrian rebels under the still secret but well reported joint DOD-CIA program that began in 2012. Nagata is currently in charge of special operations command for Central Command, the military command that includes Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.
Lawmakers who have been briefed on the new Syrian train-and-equip program—which unlike the old one is entirely under military command as opposed to the CIA—raised concerns that it will suffer from the same flaws as the CIA program that began in 2012.
“They can show you lots of information on who they trained, where they came from and what kind of gear we gave them,” one lawmaker told The Daily Beast about the CIA training program. “But they can’t tell you what happens to them once they cross the border into Syria.” This lawmaker said this is because Obama has opposed embedding any U.S. personnel inside the opposition units once they are trained. “This is like throwing a bunch of guns over the border and saying, ‘Good luck.’”
So far, according to this lawmaker, the CIA has trained no more than 3,000 rebels since 2012 out of the Jordanian base.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel testified to Congress last week that the new Syrian rebel train-and-equip program will train around 5,000 rebels per year. Two senior congressional aides who were briefed on the plan said that each rebel training base will be able to churn out 1,800 rebels per year. There are two planned for Saudi Arabia and one planned for Jordan, although the Jordanian government has yet to sign off on hosting the site. The plan is designed to be scalable and more training bases could come in future years.
The hope is this time around, under the military training, the results will be different. But at least so far Nagata and other top U.S. officials have told Congress there is no plan to embed U.S. special operations forces into the Syrian opposition units once they are sent back into Syria.
There may be a reason for this. One congressional staff member told The Daily Beast that it is particularly sensitive to send U.S. special operations into Syrian territory in part because it would be a clearer violation of international law than bombing Syrian targets from the air. “Normally we are training up forces at the request of a host nation,” this staff member said. “This time we are training forces whose aim is to overthrow another country. That’s usually what the CIA does and not the military.”
diversitah!
Without old fashioned ROE it doesn’t matter what army we field.
What exactly is the difference between the syrian rebel army and isis? Between them and all other “groups”, You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
One must necessarily be wary of any general that is liked by the Obamadorkfelon.
He only likes folks who are even more incompetent and idiotic than he.
Lets arm another few thousand terrorists because they say “please” before blowing your brains out.
FSA are head chopping cannibals, not materially different from ISIS. If trained and equipped to take on IS, they will either join IS or use their training and tools to topple Assad. Then Syria will become Libya.
He’d do better with 5,000 quality mercenaries than with 50,000 Syrian soldiers.
I recommend using Gurkhas as the core of the force.
Some biographical background
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/187928731.html?id=187928731
This is insanity, if it were for what it is claimed to be for. but it’s not really to fight IS. it’s not insane, it is a clear and consistent focus on something that is obviously importNt to the Obama administration.
It is also completely non-responsive to IS.
Prior to the IS crisis this was their policy - to arm Syrian rebels.
This is not a change in plan or policy in any way or new approach to combat IS, it is continuation of the Obama plan to arm these “Syrian rebels”.
The Obama administration is clearly focused on supporting “Syrian rebels” and will use any ruse or tactic to justify it.
You’ve got it.
Either way, he's the sacrificial goat. He'll get the blame and the responsibility and Obola will immune and insulated.
Here is the way it will work: The “army†that is being “raised, trained, and armed†to fight ISIS will ,after training and arming, be absorbed into ISIS. Then another “army “ will be raised, trained, and armed to fight ISIS with the same results. meanwhile Obama is laughing his ass off because he has pulled another one over the Republicans and his sheep that believe that he is acting “Presidentialâ€.
Worked to his satisfaction before.....
Yes, if trained and equipped, the Syrian rebels will either join IS or use their training and tools to topple Assad. Then Syria will become Libya.
In the Cold War the D’s and R’s (Uniparty) supported the “good communists” like Yugoslavia, Rumania and China against the “bad communists” like the Soviets.
Now the political elite plays the same game again supporting the “good Muslims” against the “bad Muslims”.
Times change but policy doesn’t.
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