The CIA recently bumped up its estimates of IS fighters from its earlier rough count in the 10,000 to 20,000 range to about 31,000.
The Department of Defense has requested $500 million to train and equip a 鈥渕oderate鈥� opposition. The Pentagon estimates it can train about 5,000 fighters over the course of one year. This, not incidentally, makes the cost of training each fighter roughly $100,000, Sen. Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia noted Tuesday. It will include small arms, communications equipment, vehicles, and instruction.
Finding moderates isn鈥檛 easy, lawmakers repeatedly pointed out. For his part, Senator Manchin worried aloud that the 鈥渨eapons and training will probably be used against us in the future.鈥�
Secretary Hagel tried to reassure the senators that the Pentagon would do its best to keep this from happening. 鈥淲e will monitor them closely, to ensure that weapons do not fall into the hands of radical elements of the opposition, ISIL, the Syrian regime, or other extremist groups.鈥�
That said, he warned that 鈥渢here will always be a risk in a program like this.鈥�
Dempsey surprised a number of lawmakers, however, when he said that he didn鈥檛 think finding 鈥渕oderate鈥� Syrian fighters 鈥渨ill be difficult, actually.鈥� The key, he warned, will be finding them 鈥渋n the right numbers,鈥� suggesting that too few exist for the Pentagon鈥檚 liking.
On the plus side, he said, the Pentagon will be recruiting from the 鈥渄isplaced鈥� population, so it 鈥渨on鈥檛 be as though they鈥檙e giving up the security of their families to come train with us.鈥� Saudi Arabia has agreed to host the training.
