US military action led to crisis in Mideast: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Massoud Shadjareh, a political commentator in London, about the United States planning to deploy more troops to Syria under the pretext of fighting against terrorism.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let’s start off with the recent announcement of US President Barack Obama approving the additional deployment of 250 troops to Syria. Your thoughts on the issue.

Shadjareh: Well I think first of all we need to recognize that the whole crisis in the Middle East has been as a result of US military action by going and destroying the whole infrastructure of certain nations - Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya - and the whole creation of Daesh and extremists has been part and parcel of those policies.

So US military’s involvement in the region has brought nothing except destruction, terrorism and destroying the whole infrastructure and that has been done on the pretence that they want to promote democracy and human rights. The reality is that probably one of the worst democratic, sort of undemocratic countries in the region are the allies of the United States.

So this level of hypocrisy is going on day in day out and I do not think anyone will take seriously this small number of military personnel being increased as a solution to the problem especially since this is not coordinated with the Syrian government and it actually undermines the integrity of the Syrian government which is the reason that we are here and we have the crisis.  

Press TV: Well it is not being seen as a solution, it is also being seen in the contrary to solving anything as many countries and officials including Iran have stated that further military intervention will do nothing but escalate the current crisis in Syria?

Shadjareh: Absolutely. The reality is that when we look at the history of US military involvement has brought nothing except death, destruction and terrorism and the chaos. People in Iraq, people in Syria, people in Libya, their whole lives have been destroyed because of these misguided policies of gunboat diplomacy and now we are seeing more of the same while in reality is that the impact of the so-called war against Daesh has really been pathetic and if it wasn’t because of the involvement of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah and others, Daesh would have taken over not just Syria but indeed Iraq and so reality is that 500 soldiers is really a token but a token of what, token of destruction and a policy which has brought no benefit to any nation in the last 40, 50 years.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk