Free Syrian Army fighters fire their weapons during what the FSA said were clashes with forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's Karm al-Jabal district October 15, 2013.
Let's not mince words about the Obama administration's plan to train moderate Syrian to fight against the Islamic State.
"Objectively, it's been a disaster," says Mike Giglio, a reporter with BuzzFeed who has spoken to some of the fighters.
The program was announced more than a year ago, in response to the Islamic State's expansions in Iraq. "There was this big outcry domestically and internationally 'what are you going to do to stop these guys?'" he says.
Giglio thinks that the program has been flawed since the beginning. First, the US has not been able to convince rebels to sign up to the program. That's because the parameters of the program, from the rebels perspective, are "pretty ridiculous."
"They say that the rebels cannot fight Assad [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] because it's not directive of the program," Giglio says.
In addition to that, he explains, the US hasn't been supplying the rebels with useful weapons and ammunition.
The whole process of recruitment and training has taken a much longer time than the fighters expected. "Rebels have said to me 'we've been fighting for four years, how much training do you think we need?'" Giglio says.
Meanwhile, Syrians have been hesitant to join the program. It's because it makes them a clear target for other Islamist groups.
"You're putting a target on their back with a US affiliation," Giglio says, adding that more powerful Islamist groups on the ground see them as "US proxies, which they are."
And their fear isn't unfounded. One of the major battalions of trainees experienced this first hand when they crossed the Turkish border into Syria recently. The commander of the group was abducted by the local affiliate of al-Qaeda. In response, his battalion has formally renounced any plans to fight al-Qaeda.
Giglio says the failures of this program stems from President Obama's hesitation and fear of being more involved in the Syrian conflict. And so Giglio questions the usefulness of a program like this.
"You're spending millions of dollars and putting lives on the line as far as the Syrian rebels go … for what has looked for a long time now as … window dressing," he says.
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