MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — The poor results of the US train-and-equip program, designed to create a powerful anti-ISIL force in Syria, can be explained by distrust of the instructors, an unwillingness to fight and a lack of guidance in the battlefield, experts told Sputnik on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, media reports of "moderate" Syrian rebels from the so-called Division 30 group, who had graduated from the US train-and-equip program, having taken the side of the jihadist al-Nusra Front.
This comes as officials from the US Department of Defense announced that the training program had yielded only four or five active combatants, who are now fighting against ISIL terrorist organization.
John Mueller, chair of National Security Studies at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies told Sputnik that the possible defection "suggests great difficulties for the project."
Ross Harrison, non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and professor in the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University also noted that if the reports are later confirmed, it would represent "a set-back for the US strategy of training Syrian forces in Turkey, and then setting them loose into Syria."
In 2014, the US Congress approved a $500-million budget to train and equip about 5,400 Syrian rebels by the end of 2015 to combat ISIL. However, US military officials recently revealed that the Pentagon has only trained about 60 fighters.
Harrison added that "what we do know is that in the chaotic and brutal environment these soldiers enter into in Syria, there is the inherent risk that their defections will occur as the result of fear of the circumstances they find themselves confronting, and that they will occur under duress."
Professor Mueller at the same time highlighted the issues of "distrust to the trainers" and unwillingness to engage in combat in Syria.
"The United States 'trained' 300,000 soldiers in Iraq, and few seem to be willing to fight," Mueller said.
The chair of National Security Studies at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies concluded by saying that the whole US program "looks like a total failure so far."
According to Harrison, the US-trained fighters should be tracked, monitored and kept "on the straight path" from outside Syria.
On September 18, US State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner told journalists that the country will continue the program in Syria. The comment came a day after a State Department official told reporters that Secretary of State John Kerry was disappointed in the program’s results.
