The US government’s recent pledge to step up support for Turkey’s military forces in Syria is a “desperate” attempt at taking back control from Russia, which has disrupted Western plots against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a former US Army officer based in New York.
Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare officer in California, made the remarks on Wednesday, a day after US Air Force Colonel John Dorrian’s remarks about Washington’s military cooperation with Ankara.
According to Dorrian, the US Air Force has conducted four strikes in Syria’s al-Bab, where Turkish military forces have been engaged in a fierce battle with Daesh as part of the Turkish government’s military incursion into Syria.
Ties between Turkey, a NATO member, with other member states of the US-led military alliance have been strained following their support for Kurdish militias, whom Turkey is also fighting in Syria.
The announcement came less than a week after an agreement between Moscow and Ankara to coordinate aerial attacks "on terrorist targets" in Syria. The two sides also signed a memorandum on combat flight safety during missions in Syrian airspace.
“We need to begin by restating the obvious, which is the United States essentially and obviously has no business in Syria whatsoever,” Bennett told Press TV on Wednesday, calling the US-led military campaign in the Arab country “unconstitutional, and against the interests” of American people.
“So for the United States to have military operations in Syria—without the permission of the Syrian people and the Syrian president and the Syrian government—is not only a declaration of war by the US to Syria, but it is also a betrayal and a declaration of unconstitutionality against the people of America,” he further explained.
America’s plans to topple President Assad were disrupted when Russia stepped in and started to wipe out foreign-backed terrorists fighting against the government, Bennett argued.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s success in sidelining the US and taking the center stage in Syria has prompted the outgoing US administration to do all it can to “regain any semblance of control and influence,” Bennett continued.
That is why, he said, Washington is trying to team up with Turkey.
“In fact, they are using the Turks as camouflage,” Bennett argued. “The United States has always been financing and encouraging and supplying the Daesh Takfiri Wahhabi terrorists because they are committed to removing Bashar al-Assad.”