The Pentagon plans to recruit some 5,000 refugees every year to be trained in Saudi Arabia and deployed in Syria. But some insiders say there’s a “disconnect” between the goal of creating a force to oppose the so-called Islamic State and the kind of training the recruits will be getting.
“Moderate Syrian fighters are deemed essential to defeating the Islamic State under the Obama administration’s strategy.” But plans call for training recruits only to defend territory, rather than seizing it back. That’s according to Rajiv Chandrasekaran in the Washington Post, where he’s senior correspondent and associate editor.