Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter presented a dismal picture of the Pentagon’s train and equip mission in Syria, admitting that the department was only in the process of getting roughly a busload of moderate fighters ready to take on the Islamic State (ISIL).
“As of July 3, we are currently training about 60 fighters,” Carter said in testimony Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “This number is much smaller than we hoped for at this point—partly because of the vetting standards.”
The Defense Secretary described an oversight process that seeks to ensure candidates are committed to fighting ISIL and adhering to whatever the Pentagon considers to be the rule of law on the battlefield. Potential US-backed militants are also subject to a counter-intelligence screening process.
Carter claimed there are currently 7,000 candidates in the screening process.
John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the results thus far.
“After four years Mr. secretary, that’s not a very impressive number,” he said.
McCain has long advocated for US intervention in the four year-long Syrian Civil War. The current Syrian train and equip program was initiated in January.
The chairman charged that the low numbers could be related to lingering uncertainty over the extent to which the US will protect those forces once they’re deployed—not just against ISIL militants, but also against soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
Carter claimed that the US has “some obligation” to defend its trained forces once they’re in the field, but what form those defenses take will be decided later on.
“That’s a small comfort to those people you’re’ recruiting right now that that decision will be made later on. Is that fair to these young men?” McCain asked rhetorically.
Last week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey—who also testified at Tuesday hearing—alleged that the holy month of Ramadan could be dragging down recruitment numbers.
“There’s a lot of folks that are interested in being with their families during that period. We may see after Ramadan that some of the ones we lost may come back,” he said, declining to mention that the mission had been going on for months beforehand.
