CIA-backed fighters were paid $100 to $150 a month, less than half the salary offered by the Islamists. Ammunition rations were so meager that one commander complained that his soldiers were receiving on average about sixteen bullets per month. Many of the new soldiers wandered off to join other units, taking their weapons with them. “We thought going with the Americans was going with the big guns,” one of the CIA-supplied commanders said.7 “It was a losing bet.”
