(Maclean's) Little doubt remains now that U.S. foreign policy in Syria is failing spectacularly. It would have been less obvious even a few weeks ago. Back then, before Russia began its brutal bombing campaign in support of Syrian regime forces, President Barack Obama could still make an argument for his measured approach. In some ways, it was working: the Kurds, backed by Washington, were making progress against the delusional world-domination fantasies of the so-called Islamic State. The Assad regime was shrinking and increasingly desperate. Refugees fleeing regime-held areas were telling horror stories of a regime army desperate for conscripts. “If you could hold a gun and walk,” one refugee told Maclean’s last summer, “you were expected to fight.”
Russia’s entrance into the Syrian theatre has changed everything. Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry caused a stir in Washington policy circles after intimating that the U.S. was formulating a more aggressive “Plan B” to counter the Russians’ punishing offensive, which has helped regime forces rise again from the ashes of their near defeat. The plan was short on details but, according to one “senior official” speaking to CBS News, discussions included “military-like” dimensions, whatever that means. […]
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