“The US, under President Trump is more focused on improving the state of the American people than stabilizing countries in conflict…”
The United States is no longer focused on removing President Bashar al-Assad as a condition to end the Syrian civil war. America, under the Trump administration, has been shifting away from the US insistence that Assad must go since President Trump took office. Now the shift in foreign policy is exceptionally clear.
Policy Shift
On Thursday, UN ambassador Nikki Haley condemned Assad’s history of human rights abuses against his people, but she also said Washington would focus on working with powers like Turkey and Russia to seek a political settlement rather than focusing on removing Assad.
Ambassador Haley said, “You pick and choose your battles, and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities. Our priorities are to look at how do we get things done? Who do we need to work with to really make a difference for the people in Syria? We can’t necessarily focus on Assad the way the previous administration maybe did. Do we think he’s a hindrance? Yes. Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No.”
After Ambassador Haley spoke, US mission officials clarified that the focus is to create conditions so that the Syrian people can pick their new government—one without Assad. The top priority for the US in Syria is to get rid of the threat from ISIS and to curb Iranian influence, the officials said.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, while standing alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, also addressed the future of Assad at a news conference in Turkey. “I think the Syrian people will decide the longer term status of President Assad,” Tillerson said.
Under Barack Obama’s administration, the US made Assad’s departure a key goal, but President Donald Trump has put the priority on defeating the Islamic State or ISIS.
Doing the Same Thing Over and Over
Numerous diplomatic efforts have failed to end the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 320,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted in 2011. The fifth round of UN-sponsored peace talks is taking place in Geneva, but no breakthrough has been reported, and are scheduled to end on Friday.
The US has been involved in efforts to forcibly change regimes for decades. This policy has seldom had the desired outcome. Since 1979, the US attempted to change the governments in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Most of these attempts involved the use of US troops, and most made the situation worse than if the US had done nothing at all. Regime chance is a policy that did not succeed.
President Trump has said, “We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments. Our goal is stability, not chaos because we want to rebuild our country [the United States]. We will partner with any nation that is willing to join us in the effort to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism. In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interests wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding, and good will.”
This is a very distinct shift away from policies of the past that saw US forces in foreign lands, many times in combat. Regime change, which has never turned out as planned, is over as far as the Trump administration is concerned. Assisting countries in governance and helping them fight a common enemy, such as ISIS and radical Islam, are now the priorities. The US, under President Trump is more focused on improving the state of the American people than stabilizing countries in conflict. The new policy has a very clear focus on letting those countries settle their own issues and run their own governments with US assistance if needed.
Abandoning the doctrine of regime change through the use of US forces is a major shift from previous administrations. The new policy shift against forced regime change will prevent the deployment of troops in some areas and put an end to a policy that much of the world views as American colonization.
Jon Harris is an OpsLens contributor and former Army NCO, civilian law enforcement officer, and defense contractor with over 30 years in the law enforcement community. He holds a B.S. in Government and Politics and an M.S. in Criminal Justice.
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