US complicit in creating chaos in, around Syria: Analyst

Press TV has talked to Scott Rickard, a political analyst and former American intelligence linguist from Tampa, about a US-led airstrike in the city of Dayr al-Zawr that hit Syrian military troops, killing scores of them, instead of targeting Daesh terrorists.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: The Russians and the Iranians are echoing the same sentiment that they find it really hard to believe that the airstrike was unintentional. Your take on this issue?

Rickard: Well, whether the airstrikes were unintentional or not, it's hard to really calculate at this point. Obviously, in the past when the coalitions were bombing their own troops, say in Iraq and Afghanistan, this has happened. Americans have [also] bombed their own troops in Afghanistan unfortunately. There have been horrific mistakes there in the past. There were massive amounts of investigation [large numbers of] people held accountable. And obviously in this case, the Americans are just as complicit in this arming and supporting and really creation and manifestation of the chaos that has ensued in and around Syria.

When it comes to the investigation, I don't think we're going to see a proper investigation done. Certainly, the pilots that I will call the extremely trigger-happy, these are air force pilots – whether they are Australian or American - these guys enjoy their jobs unfortunately and they watch these devastating bombs [raining down] on individuals with joy. And so unfortunately, it's a terrible situation giving these young men these tremendous weapons to destroy and annihilate lives. That's a hundred lives, up to now, that have been murdered by this American bombing. But let's just put this in perspective. Hundreds of thousands have died because of the kinds of foreign policy and support. So, this is just a drop in the bucket with the kinds of war crimes that the Americans and their allies have conducted.

Press TV: The ceasefire in a lot of ways was a litmus test to gauge if Washington and Moscow can build the much-needed trust with one another. How do you think this incident has affected the chances of the ceasefire holding?

Rickard: Well, it's absolutely sliced into half. I mean if you look at what's happened with Samantha Power and her scapegoating at the UN. Hats off to the ambassador and the Foreign Office and Russia just lambasting Samantha Power for the horrific speeches she gave at the UN Security Council this weekend and for that kind of rhetoric to be coming directly out of the State Department at the head of the UN.

Somebody needs to be held accountable in the United States because they're certainly not building any diplomacy with the horrific rhetoric that came out of her mouth. In fact, I think she should step down and be fired as well as put online for war tribunals that need to start right away in this country. Needless to say, it is not anything that's going to build any kind of peace process.

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