Washington Wanted Boots on the Ground in Syria 'Since 2011'

America wanted boots on the ground in Syria since 2011 to secure its position in the region, and therefore appreciates Saudi Arabia's assistance in accomplishing this mission, an American political analyst and a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, Dennis Etler, said Friday in an interview with Press TV.

On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter welcomed Saudi Arabia's offer to participate in any ground operations against Daesh terrorists in Syria, launched by a US-led coalition.

According to Etler, US never wanted to destroy Daesh in the first place, but instead deliberately armed, trained and funded the group via its proxies, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel.

"The US has banked on Takfiri terrorists [Daesh] to serve as stormtroopers in its campaign to oust Syrian President Bashir al-Assad and replace him with a compliant US puppet," Etler explained.

And that is basically why US was so taken aback by Russia's military intervention into the war at the request of the Syrian government. Russia's campaign against the terrorist group played a role of a wild card in the conflict of interests and turned the tide of battle in favor of the Syrian Arab Army.

Desperate to salvage its position, US had to drop certain conditions that had hindered the initiation of peace talks between "unarmed" opposition forces and the Syrian government. However, now having Russia's aerial support, the Syrian armed forces will "not surrender the initiative and allow the insurgents to reestablish their positions". And from America's perspective that makes negotiations a non-starter.

According to Etler, the US has wanted to introduce ground forces to topple the Syrian government from the start of the conflict, but there were certain factors that didn't let Washington take action. The most significant would be war weariness on the part of the US citizens and promise made by the US military to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. Then there was the success of negotiations on lifting anti-Iran sanctions.

"Faced with the dilemma of seeing its influence in Middle East and North Africa begin to wane the US is resorting to its tried and true method of asserting control over a region that has begun to waiver, war." Etler said. "In order to do so however the US has to find a new rationale to intervene that will appease its critics at home and abroad. This is where US support for ISIL [Daesh] and other terrorist groups comes into play".

According to Etler, now that the US has unleashed Daesh in the Middle East and facilitated its spread into Libya and elsewhere, Washington has secured for itself "an excuse to re-engage in ground combat operations and enlist its allies in the fight". All for the sake of reasserting its power and consolidating geo-political control of the region.

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