Anti-ISIS Syrian commander kidnapped

The New York Times reports that Nadeem Hassan, the commander and recruiter of Syrians who were being assembled and trained by US forces to fight against ISIS, well, he was kidnapped by al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, one of those rival groups of ISIS.

In an interview just two days earlier, Mr. Hassan spoke about the troubles he had faced.

After screening, just 125 of his recruits were invited to the first course. Of those, more than half were thrown out or quit.

The rest, he said, had deployed back to Syria, but had not been told whether American warplanes would defend them if Syrian forces attacked.

Mr. Hassan said the Americans, worried about the lack of recruits, were recalling men they had once rejected. Some, expelled on suspicion of embracing “Islamic State doctrine,” are unavailable: They have since died in Syria, he said — battling the Islamic State.

Pentagon training courses in Turkey and Jordan have graduated only about 60 fighters, American officials say, an apparent reference to Mr. Hassan’s men.

So, everything is going just swimmingly over there, just like the plan, you know, if there was a plan. Since we can all agree that Iraq isn’t worth one more American life, the only way ISIS is going to be beat is to let the Iranians have their way with the Sunnis. Turn them loose and let them do what they do best – kill and die.

There are thousands of Americans over there and they’ve only cranked out a few dozen recruits on the Syrian and Iraqi sides of ISIS. WTF? That’s hardly in keeping with their mission of being force multipliers.

The Nusra Front dealt a more serious blow to the C.I.A. program last year, attacking and dismantling its main groups, the Syrian Revolutionaries Front and Harakat Hazm, and seizing some of their American-supplied, sophisticated antitank missiles.

Oh, well, maybe they are force multipliers, only for the wrong side.

Category: Terror War