As of October 9th 2015 the Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State and the Assad regime.
While at the same time the Russians started an airstrike campaign against the rebels, US officials are fearing that the US influence in the region is diminishing.
The moderate rebels are fighting now at 2 battle fronts: Assad forces, Hezbollah militias on 1 front and ISIS on the other. As a result they are forced to be on the defensive. Unless the US funds a volunteer program to help the moderate Syrian rebels we will lose our influence in the region.