How Obama Admin Helped Give “Pick-Up Trucks, Ammo” To Al-Qaeda

“We, and the Sunni people in Syria, will not allow their sacrifices to be offered on a golden platter to the American side,” the group said, on the way to advising the US to give up on the program.

As it turns out, that was good advice because less than two months later, Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. Central Command and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth admitted to Congress that the effort to recruit and field a force of more than 5,000 anti-ISIS fighters by year end wasn’t on track. When asked how many soldiers trained under the program (which was launched in May) were still operating in Syria, Austin said the total was probably “four or five.”

“Let’s not kid ourselves, that’s a joke. This is just a total failure,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said.

Training those “four or five” freedom fighters has so far cost US taxpayers north of $40 million, and as we noted earlier this month, it’s important to take note of the sheer absurdity inherent in al-Nusra capturing the group’s leaders over the summer:

Well, just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get any more ridiculous, the Pentagon now says the “four or five” fighters still operating under the latest effort to train “moderate” Syrian rebels were forced to hand over six “pickup trucks” and an ammo cache to al-Qaeda in order to secure safe passage to who knows where. That accounted for one fourth of their entire provisions.

Source: Zero Hedge

Dumb and Dumber…