CFR Daily News Brief: United States Ends Syrian Rebel Training Program

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October 9, 2015 Daily News Brief

TOP OF THE AGENDA United States Ends Syrian Rebel Training Program The Obama administration ended (NYT) the Pentagon's $500 million program to train moderate Syrian rebels on Friday after mounting reports about the program's ineffectiveness in developing a force to defeat the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The news comes as Islamic State militants seized (AP) a series of villages from rebels outside of Aleppo and amid intensified Russian air strikes. Separately, militants near Aleppo killed (Al Jazeera) an Iranian commander, according to Iranian officials. Meanwhile, France’s defense minister said that the country’s forces had destroyed (Reuters) an Islamic State training camp in Raqqa and that more strikes would follow.

ANALYSIS "The Obama administration appears inclined to draw a clear distinction between its campaign to degrade and destroy ISIS and the fight to topple al-Assad. Yet maintaining that distinction is untenable. If U.S.-armed rebels are able to eradicate the Islamic State, an unlikely scenario to say the least, they are likely to then turn their attention toward the al-Assad regime. The reality is that even with the benefit of American arms, rebel forces are unlikely to be able to overcome Russian-backed regime forces," writes Brad Stapleton at CNN. "Putin appears to be moving steadily toward the goal that many commentators have attributed to him since the Russian military operation began last week: propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad so that he can regain control of at least part of his country. One commentator suggested that what Putin is after is to discredit America in the eyes of the Syrian opposition groups by demonstrating that the United States cannot protect them. Whether or not this is indeed among Putin's objectives, he surely feels vindicated as he conducts an overseas military operation, over American objections, to prop up the 'right' and punish the ‘wrong,'" writes Masha Lipman in the New Yorker. "In Syria Russia faces a real enemy that cannot be switched off. A Russian airbase is vulnerable to insurgent attack. Alexander Khramchikhin, a Russian military expert, argues that if Russia really wants to defeat IS, it will have to commit far greater resources. Meanwhile, in the face of Russia’s economic difficulties, the domestic political effectiveness of virtual-reality warfare has limits," writes the Economist.