The AP quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof on the effectiveness of the US strategy of training Syrian rebels:
“My sense is that they do not have a real strategy in the sense of something that could actually achieve an objective,” said Frederic Hof, who held ambassador status as the Obama administration’s former adviser on the transition in Syria. Hof, now a fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, called the program a placeholder in case the administration wants to ramp up the fight in Syria.
“I think the most it does now is that it checks a political box here in the United States, in the sense of providing talking points to the effect that you are actually doing something,” said Hof.