The US military's $500-million program to train and equip militants in Syria has been a "total failure"�and a "waste of American tax payers� money," a political analyst in Atlanta says.

�How can something go on like this where defense contractors are making huge amounts of money and it�s just a total and utter failure,� asked Jim W. Dean, the managing editor and columnist at Veterans Today.

This program is part of an ongoing �game� in the region that has resulted in US �taxpayers� money being spent into oblivion; money down a big rat hole,� Dean told Press TV in a phone interview on Sunday.

Dean urged the American public to contact their Congress members and pressure them to stop this wasteful spending and �insanity.�

Following days of denials, the Pentagon revealed Friday that militants trained by the US to fight the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group in Syria had turned over some of their�supplied weapons to an al-Qaeda-affiliated group.

The US Central Command admitted that the so-called New Syrian Forces (NSF) surrendered their weapons to the al-Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage within the region, a startling acknowledgement that contrasted with earlier Pentagon denials.

"Unfortunately, we learned late today that the NSF unit now says it did in fact provide six pickup trucks and a portion of their ammunition to a suspected al-Nusra Front (group)," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

�The report of NSF members providing equipment to al-Nusra Front is very concerning and a violation of Syria train-and-equip program guidelines," Ryder said.

The development is another embarrassing setback for the US effort to "train and equip" the so-called moderate Syrian militants to fight Daesh.

The $500-million program was originally intended to train about 5,400 militants a year for three years, but the plan has been plagued with problems and has seen only a fraction of that number getting trained.

By Press TV