Special to WorldTribune.com

The Obama administration pledged $500 million to train over 5,000 moderate Syrian fighters to battle Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

How’s that working out?

According to the commander of U.S. Central Command, only “four or five” are currently on the battlefield. Not four or five thousand, or even four or five hundred — but “four or five.”

Gen. Lloyd Austin made the revelation in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 16, telling the panel the goal was not going to be met and that options are being explored about how to retool the program, which began training fighters in April.

Christine Wormuth, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, told the panel there are currently around 100 to 120 fighters in the program that was slated to have trained 5,400 fighters in its first 12 months.

The program got off to a rocky start as its first graduates were quickly attacked by the Al Nusra Front. Though U.S. airstrikes repelled the attack, it was seen as a major setback for the program.

Asked by the Senate panel how many trained fighters remained in the fight, Austin responded “it’s a small number,” before adding “the ones that are in the fight, we’re talking four or five.”

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. John McCain said that in his 30 years on the panel “I have never heard testimony like this. … Never. I have never seen a hearing that is as divorced from the reality of every outside expert and what you are saying.”

McCain said there was a “disconnect” between Austin’s assessment of the fight against ISIL and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, who last week described the battle against ISIL as “a tactical stalemate.”

A U.S. official told ABC News that the initial group of 54 fighters who were trained in the U.S. program was not effective from the time they re-entered Syria

At the time of the Al Nusra attack on July 31 the fighters had been split four ways due to the Eid holiday that ended Ramadan in mid-July. Some of the fighters who went to Turkey were trapped there when Turkey closed its borders. Another group who visited family had not yet returned to their unit when the attack occurred.

A third group of fighters broke off from the main group to follow a leader who had chosen to fight Bashar Assad regime forces instead of ISIL.

  ‘Disconnect’: Obama spent $500 million to train ‘4 or 5’ anti-ISIL fighters, Gen. Lloyd Austin, Sen. John McCain, Senate Armed Services Committee, WorldTribune.com