US policy in Syria, extremely short-sighted: Analyst

Experts say the US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria have helped the Daesh Takfiri terrorists make some gains in the war-torn country. The raids have also been the reason why a ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow fell apart. According to Richard Hayden Black, Republican member of the Virginia State Senate, the war would have been over by now if the US had put an end to its intervention when Russia entered the war-ravaged country.

Press TV has spoken to Brian Becker, a member of the ANSWER Coalition, as well as Michael Lane, founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy, to get their take on the United States’ role in prolonging the Syrian conflict.

Becker says the US foreign policy in Syria is extremely “short-sighted” and “schizophrenic,” adding that while Washington claims its main goal is the war on terror, it is supporting and funding terrorists in many battlefields.

He also noted the United States - through the CIA coordinating in Jordan – has injected large amounts of funds and weapons into Syria, making the Daesh terrorist group grow stronger.

He also stated that Washington tried to play a balancing act after it realized its entire policy in Syria was a “catastrophe.”

“If you look at 2011, 2012, 2013 up until August, September even past August, September 2013, the sole focus of US political attack against opponents in Syria was directed against the secular nationalist government of [President] Bashar al-Assad. There was no mention at all of al-Qaeda. There was no mention at all in particular of Daesh or ISIL,” Becker said. 

“That only happened in September 2014 when ISIL surprised the American government by seizing Mosul and Tikrit and other cities in Iraq and seemed to be on the march in Iraq threatening what America considered to be its strategic asset. Then suddenly the US government said we must intervene in Iraq and Syria directly to stop the existential threat posed by ISIL,” he added. 

The analyst further added the decisive intervention by Russia pushed back the terrorists and made it quite clear that US policy of regime change in Syria was a “complete and utter failure.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Becker said the Pentagon was never really for the ceasefire in Syria and it was very “non-committal” about it.

“They immediately bombed Syrian Arab army positions, killing more than 80 Syrian soldiers. They deliberately struck a place that has been occupied for several years by the Syrian Arab army and that sabotaged the ceasefire that they did not want,” he stated.  

He also argued the US cannot disentangle the Free Syrian Army from the terrorists because these so-called moderate militants are very weak and a nonfactor and their survival hinges on their links to terrorist groups such as al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, the other panelist on Press TV’s program, Michael Lane, opined that stepping aside and merely letting Russia and Syria prosecute the war and wind up with all the hegemony in the theatre at the expense of the United States is not in Washington’s interest.

He also said 90 percent of Syria and Russia’s activities are against the “moderate” militants not the terrorists in an attempt to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power.

According to the analyst, the Syrian-Russian coalition is likely to prevail on the battlefield and with Moscow as the main backer of the government in Damascus, President Assad is not going anywhere.

Syria has been grappling with deadly militancy that it blames on some Western states and their regional allies since March 2011.

The foreign-sponsored conflict has so far claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

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