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Russia achieved in one week in Syria what US could not in one year: American researcher

Russia achieved in one week in Syria what the US could not achieve in one year, American researcher Dennis Etler says.

The successful Russian air campaign against Daesh (ISIL) positions in Syria has exposed the bankrupt US policy towards the terrorist group, an American researcher says.

Dennis Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on a report which says the CIA-trained militants in Syria are now under Russian missile strikes with little prospect of rescue by their US supporters.

Russia has directed parts of its military campaign against US-backed terrorists and other extremist groups in an effort to weaken them, The Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing unnamed US officials.

“Russia has shown the US policy to be totally bankrupt, because it’s accomplished basically in one week what the US could not accomplish in one year,” Etler said.

“But, of course, the US never wanted to disarm, or dismantle ISIS [Daesh/ISIL]. They basically wanted to keep it there to implement its policy, and they were basically conducting a fake war, a phony war against ISIS,” he added.

US conundrum 

An image grab made from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on October 5, 2015 reportedly shows a Russian aircraft dropping bombs during an airstrike against ISIL positions in Syria. (AFP photo)

Russia began airstrikes against ISIL terrorists wreaking havoc in Syria on September 30 at a request from the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow has carried out more than 110 airstrikes against terrorists in Syria so far, killing hundreds of militants. 

“So now that the Russians have intervened and have basically exposed the US strategy for its bankruptcy, the US is going to have to find some other way to conduct its policy there,” Etler said.

“Now this is a conundrum for the US. Many of their options have been foreclosed. Whether or not they will basically give up the ghost and allow Syria to combat ISIS with their Russian allies and others in the region is still up in the air,” he stated.  

“It’s really not clear what the US response will be. They seem to be very much at wit's end trying to figure out how to respond to the Russian initiative,” the analyst noted. 

“I would suspect that they might in the long run decide that it’s not worth it in Syria and go on to other fronts, and redirect ISIS towards ISIS towards Central Asia,” he predicted.

“They are beginning to develop a staging area in Afghanistan.  And I can see where the US would use these storm troopers to destabilize Central Asia and also try to destabilize China,” he observed.

Why US comes up with new way of intervening

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Saudi King Salman in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, March 5, 2015. (AFP photo)

Earlier in his remarks, Etler said, “The US and Saudi Arabia, of course, have been deeply implicated in the creation and activities” of the Daesh terrorist group.

“The US has of course tried to distance itself with some sort of plausible deniability by having these other so-called moderate opposition forces, which they have armed and trained to no avail,” he stated.

“That is as far as I see a cover story which is meant to deflect away from US complicity in the rise of ISIS,” he added.

“Now that this has been exposed and that it’s acknowledged that most of the funding and arms have been funneled through these so-called moderate cells to ISIS, the US has to come up with a new way of intervening in Syria,” the researcher pointed out.


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