WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The change of direction in US policy toward the Syrian opposition reveals the Obama administration is in confusion and does not know what to do next, US experts told Sputnik.
"What to do about Syria? It is the Question of the Day. It is not at all apparent what they have in mind," Gareth Porter, an American historian, investigative journalist, author and policy analyst specializing in US national security policy told Sputnik on Friday.
Earlier on Friday, the Pentagon announced plans to divert US military aid away from the failed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and to direct it to other opposition groups with a more effective record in fighting ISIL.
Porter noted that there was still no sign of any clear alternative strategy by the Obama administration on Syria.
"There are different ideas circulating and contending. But none of the ideas are coherent. They are not reality based. I really think they have no clue," Porter said.
He asserted that the Obama administration was operating on a steady stream of inaccurate reports compiled by different parts of the US national security state.
He observed that within the US defense establishment, some have even proposed the idea of supplying Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to US-backed forces to deter the Russian air force from attacking them.
"It doesn’t surprise me that this is in the wind. It’s the obvious thing to think about when you’re desperate and when you have no other ideas. They are thinking about the 1980s Afghan model again and on how to use it to defeat the Russians in Syria," he added.
However, Porter argued if the Stingers fell into the hands of the Islamic State, then US and Coalition air operations over the region would be in serious danger.
"Of course, if the Islamic State got them and used them against the US Air Force, the consequences would be devastating. That’s why I don’t expect this policy to go through. I don’t expect the White House to approve it," he concluded.
US policymakers were in confusion because they were still trying to apply in Syria a supposedly sophisticated counterinsurgency model that they had already used unsuccessfully in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, Executive Intelligence Review Senior Editor Jeff Steinberg told Sputnik.
"The US is still stuck in General David Petraeus' flawed concept of counterinsurgency, which is totally different than the Russian doctrine of total victory," Steinberg explained.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent forces into Syria to defeat the jihadists, including the Islamic State, the Nusra Front and the Saudi-created Army of Conquest, Steinberg noted.
"The US military is aware of all of this, and, frankly, they are cheering in many instances for the Russians to do the job that the United States will not be allowed to do by our Coalition ‘allies’," he concluded.
By Friday, the Russian armed forces had carried out 140 sorties against Islamist forces since the Syria campaign began on September 30 on the request of the Syrian government.
