US to Train Thousands of Syrian Rebels per Year
Telesur, propaganda mouthpiece of ISIS.
' “In the east of Syria, there is no Free Syrian Army any longer. All Free Syrian Army (FSA) people (there) have joined the Islamic State,” a senior Islamic State group commander told the Washington Post in August 2014.'
This isn't true. There was a substantial contingent of the Free Syrian Army in Deir Ezzor when ISIS over-ran it in June 2014. They appealed for weeks for some arms to be sent so they could resist ISIS*, when it didn't come they didn't join ISIS, but left to fight on other fronts, some of them to Kobane, and maybe some of them stayed. When Ha'aretz reports, "Islamic State has beheaded or shot 17 men in Syria in the past two days as it faces increasing attacks from unidentified gunmen in areas it controls,"** I think they might be identified as the Free Syrian Army. But Telesur prefers to go solely with the extremists version of events.
And with only the negatives of what American officials have to say.
"According to Defense One, the training program's biggest hurdle is establishing a vetting process for potential recruits.
“(I)dentifying rebel fighters who don’t have ties to Jabhat al-Nusra, the main al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is extremely difficult for a Pentagon with limited resources on the ground,” Defense One reported."
I've looked at the Defense One story***, and that quote is immediately followed up by, "Still, the Pentagon is confident its forces can identify, recruit and then train a moderate force. American military forces, particularly Special Forces, have decades of experience screening foreign military forces for training, Pentagon officials said.
“We also know the Syrian opposition better now than we did two years ago through the programs we’ve had providing non-lethal assistance.” "
Even so, Telesur is only following what those administering Obama's hands-off policy have been telling us for the last three years, that you can't trust Muslims because any of them might be a jihadi. Defense One doesn't ignore the alternate view, " frustration from critics arguing that the Obama Administration has not moved faster to assist the floundering moderate forces inside Syria."
In other good news, Greta and Vanessa, the two revolutionaries kidnapped by al-Nusra, have been freed.****
*[https://now.mmedia.me/…/550922-syria-rebels-urge-arab-suppo…]
**[http://www.haaretz.com/…/middl…/middle-east-updates/1.637443]
***[http://www.defenseone.com/…/us-send-400-trainers-an…/103068/]
****[http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/syria-italian-hostage-aid-workers-…]