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Russia irreversibly changed military dynamic in Syria: Analyst

The US government’s “schizophrenic” plans for military expansion in Syria will fail because of Russia’s campaign, says Becker.

The US government’s new plans to expand military operations inside Syria will fail because Russia has changed the military dynamic on the ground, says an expert.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that Washington is "prepared to expand" the role of Special Operations forces in Syria.

In October, President Barack Obama authorized plans to send some 50 special forces to Syria to "train, advise and assist" Kurdish forces in fighting against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group.

Some 30 US soldiers reportedly arrived in the Syrian city of Kobani, while 20 others were stationed in the Hasakah province.

“The Obama administration and the Pentagon lost control of the operation and their plans in Syria quite some time ago,” said Brian Becker, the national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, a US-based protest umbrella group consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations.

“They had intended to fund and arm the opposition groups including al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, the [so-called] Army of Conquest, and of course, through Turkey and Saudi Arabia, ISIL or Daesh,” he told Press TV on Wednesday.

Becker was referring to the Pentagon’s failed $500 million program to “train and equip” militants in order to fight Daesh and the Syrian government.

The forces were trained in Turkey and Jordan but the program was scrapped after the trained militants either defected to other groups or deserted the program, according to US defense officials.

Washington has been seeking to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad through such measures, Becker noted.  

“But in fact because of popular support among a significant part of the population; and because of the tenacity of the Syrian Arab Army; and because Syria enjoys international allies including Iran, Russia and resistance forces in Lebanon, the Assad government has, in spite of all the death and destruction brought by the civil war, been able to survive,” the analyst said.

“Now with Russia’s military intervention, the military dynamic has irreversibly changed inside of Syria and it is quite obvious that the West’s efforts to carry out regime change will never be realized,” he added.

Becker said that for its policy against Daesh to become really effective, the US needs to join the international coalition, and in particular Russia, that has been dealing severe blows to the terror group.

“We have what appears to be schizophrenic foreign policy, and schizophrenic military policy, [and] Ash Carter’s announcement that the US will send Special Operations forces should be understood in that context; it cannot be of decisive significance militarily,” Becker concluded.


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