The United States has no practical strategy in Syria to fight the Daesh terrorist network and is facing severe shortcomings, a political commentator in Washington says.
US Defense Department’s plans to battle Daesh (ISIL) terrorists by using the so-called moderate rebels has failed, said Jeff Steinberg, a senior editor for the Executive Intelligence Review.
“I’m extremely skeptical that there is a viable plan since the efforts by the Pentagon over the last year have been an absolute failure so far,” Steinberg told Press TV on Tuesday.
Pentagon officials are drawing up plans to put a larger number of newly-trained militants in safe zones as well as providing them with more intelligence and combat skills to fight ISIL, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The shift in strategy comes after the first round of US-trained militants were attacked by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in July, highlighting several glaring deficiencies in the Pentagon program. One militant fighter was killed in the attack and five more were captured.
Classified assessments indicate that the militants were ill-prepared, deployed to Syria in too small numbers, had no local support from the population, and had inadequate intelligence about who they were supposed to fight, The Times said.
Observers say Syrian President Bashar al-Assad still plays a pivotal role in his country and any plan devised for the Syrian crisis would fail if it does not take into consideration the right of the Syrian people to shape their own future.
Steinberg said the only viable alternative to resolving the Syrian crisis is a diplomatic solution.
“Ultimately the only viable option is a diplomatic solution and I think the Russians are initiating diplomatic work and concluded that they have to strengthen the credibility of Assad and the Damascus government’s position in order to effectively carry out a diplomatic solution,” he said.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has reportedly claimed more than 240,000 lives up until now.
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