The White House sought to downplay concerns about the U.S.’s ability to recruit Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after the Pentagon revealed Tuesday it is only training 60.
“We have long acknowledged that that would be a more challenging, difficult, longer term task, and — and that is something that is still ongoing,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
{mosads}The number of opposition fighters the U.S. is training is well short of the 3,000 defense officials hope to train by the end of the year, and it prompted doubts from lawmakers the plan could work.
The revelation, made by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter at a Senate hearing Thursday, came on the heels of President Obama’s announcement that the U.S. would ramp up its efforts to drive ISIS out of Syria. He said training moderate opposition fighters is a central part of that plan.
But Republican lawmakers at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing cast doubt that the U.S. would be able to train enough troops to meet its goal.
“The math doesn’t add up,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a 2016 presidential candidate.
Earnest said it’s too early to make that judgment, saying the U.S. is trying to build “almost essentially from the ground up a trained, equipped, moderate Syrian opposition.”
“What the United States and our coalition partners are looking to do is to try to accelerate that training process,” he said. “And that includes more resources, that means stepping up our recruiting efforts.”
The spokesman also said it has been difficult to vet moderate opposition fighters for training to ensure they don’t have ties to terrorist groups.
Earnest noted that local fighters, backed by coalition airstrikes, have pushed ISIS forces out of large areas surrounding the group’s stronghold in Raqqa. But those gains have been made by Kurdish fighters, who are largely distrusted by other groups in Syria.