The top U.S. general in the Middle East said only “four or five” U.S.-trained Syrians are still in the fight against the Islamic State, drawing a harsh, bipartisan rebuke from senators on Wednesday.
“So we’re counting on our fingers and toes at this point when we envisioned 5,400 by the end of the year,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., suggesting that perhaps it’s time to declare the $500 million program a failure.
“This is a total failure. A failure. I wish it weren’t so, but that’s a fact,” added Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
“The program is much smaller than we hoped,” said Christine Wormuth, undersecretary of defense for policy, who noted that the strict vetting process required by law limited the number of recruits into the training.
She told lawmakers that many potential recruits also wanted to fight the regime of President Bashar Assad rather than the Islamic State “and that’s not the focus of our program.”
This year, defense officials acknowledged that the training program has produced only 54 graduates out of a planned 5,400 by the end of the year, and only about another 100-120 are still in the pipeline.
