US trained rebels in Syria hand weapons and ammo over to al-Qaeda. AFP

Al-Nusra front fighters in Aleppo. Yahoo/AFP.

In a shocking admission, the US has admitted that a group of rebels trained by the United States has turned over a portion of their weapons and ammunition to al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front. AFP. The New Syrian Forces (NSF) handed over six pickup trucks as well as weapons and ammo to al-Nusra. The NSF handed over the weapons and equipment to ensure safe passage through al-Nusra controlled territory. The equipment handed over to al-Nusra was equivalent of 25% of all the equipment held by NSF. The program to train secular rebels to fight ISIS in Syria has been a failure. the first batch of 54 fighters was largely destroyed by al-Nusra after they entered Syria, with the whereabouts of most of the fighters unknown. Only four or five of this group are known to be still fighting. The rebels that gave their weapons to al-Nusra are part of the 2nd group of about 70 fighters who just entered Syria. Rumors have been constant on social media of defections to al-Nusra from this second group of fighters but so far the rumors have not been confirmed. 

My Comment:

Unbelievable. This $500 million program is an absolute disaster. Our policy in Syria is so dysfunctional that we are now directly helping the al-Nusra front. Al-Nusra is al-Qaeda. They are the exact same people that conducted 9/11. They hate America and the only reason they aren't attacking us right now is because we don't have any ground forces in Syria. If we had, there is no doubt in my mind that these weapons and vehicles would be used against American troops. As it stands right now they will just be used to kill Christians, Shiites, Druze and Alawites. 

Sure ISIS is the worst group in Syria. It's hard to compete with them. But if any group does it is al-Nusra. They have conducted their own atrocities, and though they haven't reached the heights that ISIS has, they are still evil. It says something about the Syrian war that al-Nusra is not the worst group fighting in it. In a movie they would be considered a racist caricature of a Muslim group and in any other war they would be the worst faction by far. 

The fact that we are supporting these people, even indirectly, is a national shame. I may not be an expert but I though the number rule after 9/11 was to not help al-Qaeda under any circumstances. But now we are helping them, even if we didn't mean too. How is this even possible?

I blame the President. Barack Obama has always been inconsistent when it comes to Syria. He made a red line that the Syrians supposedly crossed and then backed down. And when it became clear that ISIS and al-Nusra were taking over most of the country we had a leader that again decided to avoid making the hard call and instead took half measures. Sure we had a few airstrikes that had an effect in some battles, like in Kobani, but we never deployed ground troops or worked with the government.

And our effort to train moderate rebels has been a complete failure. We would have been better served taking that $500 million and setting it on fire. None of the rebels wanted to fight ISIS. They wanted to fight Assad, but Obama was too cowardly to let them. There is a reason that we have trained less then 200 fighters and it's because nobody wants to fight with US. The rebels know we won't help them if they come up against Assad's forces, and that was true before Russia had forces deployed in Syria. 

If you want to see what a consistent foreign policy looks like, take a look at Russia. Vladimir Putin has always been on the same page. He has said from the beginning that Assad was the only choice for leadership in the region and that the people that have been fighting him have always been terrorists. Agree with that or not, but at least you have to admit that it is better then Barack Obama's waffling on the issue. 

Even if Russia is making a huge mistake by deploying ground forces, at least it seems like Russia has a plan. I don't know if propping up the Assad regime is the right thing to do but Russia is going to do it, no matter what the rest of the world thinks. That is how you run a foreign policy. Not by waffling around. Make a choice and stick with it. 

Of course now that Russia is involved with the war it complicates everything. Obama was not willing to attack Assad to protect our rebels, what do you think the chances that he will risk a confrontation with Russia to protect them? My guess is zero, especially since there are rumors that we will be working with Russia to fight ISIS.  

And that's another thing. It's clear that the United States has abdicated the lead role in the fight against ISIS. Russia is going to take over that role, whether we like it or not. Though I don't mind the idea of Russia stepping up to the plate, our allies throughout the world will perceive, correctly I might add, as a sign of weakness. We are letting our "enemy" Russia, make a fool out of us. And our power and prestige is at the lowest point since before the 2nd world war. 

My hope is that our next president will restore some of our prestige and power. America needs to be looked up to as a leader, not a country that accidentally lets a bunch of rebels hand weapons over to our most hated enemy. We need strength and competence and we do not have that with President Obama.