In an interview with BBC Radio, Lord Richards stressed that the West should establish a protection zone in the Syrian province of Idlib, which he thinks President Bashar Assad's forces will attack next.
According to Richards, UK troops should be deployed to Idlib "in a defensive mode."
READ MORE: All NATO Members Expressed Support for US-Led Airstrikes Against Syria
"You could have hit airfields, and other targets. This was designed to send a narrow lesson of punishment and not to risk any wider conflagration," he added.
"But the result is it's a lost opportunity to change the course of the war," Lord Richards stated.
On April 14, the United Kingdom, the United States and France launched strikes at Syria over alleged reports of a chemical attack in the city of Douma, with the three countries firing over 100 missiles at the country.
Syria's President Bashar Assad has slammed the attack as an act of "aggression," while Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the airstrikes "violated the norms of international law, including the UN Charter and caused major damage to the process of peacefully settling the Syrian crisis.
The very claims about what the West considered a chemical attack were based on nothing but social media messages, as well as "evidence" provided by the notorious White Helmets NGO, often affiliated with terrorists. The White Helmets' footage has been proven fake by a boy whom the NGO forced to be filmed in exchange for food, his father, as well as a doctor in the hospital where the filming took place. Russia had warned in advance that such a provocation would take place "to justify" a strike on Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry has accused London of staging the false flag incident.
READ MORE: Another Boy Says Got Food For Filming in Staged Douma Chemical Attack Footage