Senator: Obama wants $100K per rebel
By Kristina Wong - 09/16/14
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) blasted the president's plan to train and arm moderate Syrian opposition forces against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as Congress prepares for a vote to authorize it.
He said the plan, which would cost $500 million to train 5,000 rebels for a year, would essentially cost $100,000 per rebel.
"So that is $100,000 per person that we are supposed to do," he said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.
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"And when you start looking at what we've spent, almost $20 billion trying to build up a 280,000-person army in Iraq, and the first time they were tested, they turned tail and ran, turned over the arsenal that we equipped them with, now it's being used against us," he said.
"The only thing that I know that we are short of is that training and those weapons will probably be used against us at some time in the future if everything that has happened in the past," he added.
He also said the U.S. has spent enough money and lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
"And then when you look at what we have done in that part of the world ... $1.6 trillion to date and growing; 4,400 lives lost in Iraq; 36,000 wounded; 2,200 lives in Afghanistan and 21,000 wounded," he said.
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"You can't sell this stuff. And no one believes the outcome will be any different," he said.
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House and Senate leaders are planning to attach a measure authorizing the plan to a spending bill lawmakers will likely vote on this week before they go on recess. Manchin said lawmakers should stay longer and debate the plan as a separate measure.
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More:
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/21...l-says-dem-sen
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