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US ‘spectacularly’ failed in training militants for Syria: Analyst

An analyst says Washington has “spectacularly” failed in training so-called moderate militants in Syria.

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The United States has “spectacularly” failed to achieve any of its goals in training so-called moderate rebels in Syria and US military officials have come to realize that, says an American analyst.

Joe Iosbaker made the comments when asked about remarks by the chief of the US military campaign in Iraq and Syria Gen. Lloyd Austin III, acknowledging that the $500 million Pentagon program to train militants in Syria has so far yielded only "four or five" fighters.

“The US plan to train moderate Syrian rebels is failing spectacularly,” Iosbaker told Press TV on Thursday.

He said that the failure was expected “because the idea of a moderate Syrian rebel is a myth.”

The analyst maintained that “the latest PR effort to train moderates is failing badly.”

The Pentagon had initially announced that it plans to train and arm about 5,400 militants a year as a proxy ground force against Daesh in Syria.

However, administration officials have said only a lackluster 100 or so militants have joined the program so far.

“This force arrayed against the government of Syria since the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia began arming them in 2011 are fanatics,” Iosbaker posited.

The US has been training and arming “moderate” militants supposedly to fight the Daesh terrorists, but analysts say they will end up fighting against the Syrian government.

Earlier this month Department of Defense officials were reported to be drawing up plans to put larger number of newly-trained militants in safer zones as well as providing them with more intelligence on the Daesh terror network.