US, allies have been seeking to destroy Syria for 5 years: Analyst

The United States and its Western and Arab allies have sought to destroy the nation and culture of Syria while Russia has played a constructive role in the country’s 5-year conflict, an American writer and political analyst says.

“What they’ve been doing is trying to destroy the Syrian government and the Syrian state and culture for five years and the Russians have been diametrically opposed to this coup attempt and have actually stopped it,” said Daniel Patrick Welch, a political commentator in Boston, Massachusetts.

“They (Russia) effectively stopped the death squad juggernaut in its tracks for the first time since the end of the Cold War,” Welch told Press TV on Wednesday.

Despite Russian and Iranian efforts to bring peace in Syria, Washington continues to launch a full-fledged assault against Syria and other anti-imperialist nations, he added.

The Pentagon has acknowledged Russia’s “constructive role” in the Syrian peace process, which might ultimately lead to a “resolution” of the years-long conflict.

“It's being clear that they have focused more of their military attention on ISIL. We think that is a good thing. We encourage that from the start,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said during a briefing on Tuesday.

“They're playing a constructive role with regard to the cessation of hostilities,” he added.

The Pentagon official said that no other player has more “leverage” than Russia to nudge the Syrian government toward a political transition.

Cook said the United States will continue with its military campaign against Daesh, “but at this point, we're not at a position to cooperate with Russia in that effort.”

In recent months, the Syrian army, backed by the Russian air power, has been making major gains against terrorist groups, recapturing several strategic areas from their grip, particularly in the strategic northern province of Aleppo.

The Pentagon for months had accused Russia of being disingenuous by saying it was targeting Daesh terrorists while it was actually bombing US-backed militants operating inside Syria.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the crisis in the Arab country has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people and displaced nearly half of its pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

When US admits defeat in one area…

In his interview with Press TV, Welch said when the United States admits defeat in one area, they are cooking something up elsewhere.

"This reflects this classic pattern of a) The US being the last ones to see the truth and b) the US conceding it was wrong when it has no other choice,” he said. “Another headline for this could be ‘US finally concedes winners may have won.’”

The analyst said that Russians have stopped the Western-sponsored "death squad juggernaut" in Syria.  

"This is an enormous, monumental achievement, but it can’t be seen as that. So the US has to pretend that the Russians have ‘come to the table.’ They also use phrases like they ‘encouraged this from the beginning,’ and they concede that ‘Russia has played a constructive role.’ And ‘if anyone can nudge the Syrian government forward,’ -- what they’re saying is okay, please -- what we want is to get rid of Assad and overthrow Syria, so if you can take the ball and make that happen, that’d be great,” he stated.

"Of course that’s not going to happen. There are two things you don’t want to take from this. One is they’re not done. The US never concedes defeat. Look at how reluctantly and mean-spiritedly they do this. And you know the pot is still boiling in Syria as well as everywhere else,” he pointed out.

“The second thing is that it would be unwise to think that they are in cahoots with the Russians because they make this conciliatory statement. They’re forced into it. I mean who knows what bargains are going on behind closed doors and what the Syrians and the Russians and the Iranians are agreeing to. But it will be on terms very different than before Russia became involved,” he observed.

US elections won't change anything

Welch argued that the elections in the US won't change anything, saying Democratic and Republican presidential front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,  both are committed US exceptionalists, and their policies will be as bad or worse that those currently in place, designed and implemented by the same neocon “experts” both have already handpicked.

"And the other thing is that nothing changes in the long term: It is silly to expect that the elections will change anything,” he said.

“Clinton has a huge animus toward Russia and Syria and Iran. Her foreign policy is going to be every bit as disastrous as the one currently in place,” he noted. 

“And as for Trump, there are certain sections of the anti-imperialist crowd that think that this is some sort of salvation. He has a wildly exceptionalist, pro-imperialist policy in his gut: the US is going to be great! We have to have the strongest military ever," he stated. 

"The people he picks are warmongers and neocons to oversee that policy. So you can never let your guard down with empire, and never for a minute think that you have gained some permanent foothold without fighting like hell to keep it that way," the commentator concluded. 

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