![]() “We walk around Syria with a huge American flag planted on our backs, but we don’t have enough AK-47s in our hands to protect ourselves,” one fighter told American lawmakers. They had to hand over spent missile launchers at a spot along the border to qualify for resupply. Trusted commanders had to film their use of anti-tank missiles. The CIA was terrified that the arms it supplied would fall into enemy hands so it maintained paralyzingly tight controls on sophisticated weaponry. The Islamic State paid its fighters twice that. ![]() gave the rebels money to pay their troops, but they only gave them $100 to $150 for each fighter per month. The rebels asked the CIA for ammunition to take advantage of temporary opportunities, but the CIA sometimes took two weeks to decide. The rebels captured dozens of tanks, but the CIA wouldn’t provide cash for fuel or shells so the tanks just sat there. One commander got the equivalent of 16 bullets a month per fighter. One trusted commander asked for more than a thousand rifles and received fewer than 36. The CIA gave the rebels just 5 percent to 20 percent of the arms they requested. We gave them just enough support to betray them.Īs Adam Entous reported in The Wall Street Journal this week, we promised the fighters support but then never had the will to follow through. In the middle of 2013, the United States began supporting moderate rebels in Syria.
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