U.S. Worsening Syria’s Conflict and Helping ISIS

U.S. President Barack Obama has called for more forceful intervention in the Syrian conflict — but armed opposition groups on the ground say that America’s misguided actions aren’t just not helping — they’re making things worse.

As Kurdish YPG forces liberated the embattled border city of Kobani after 134 days of siege by ISIS fighters, the Pentagon unveiled plans this month to provide weapons and military training to what it called “moderate” Syrian rebels trying clawing their way through a battle on all fronts.

President Obama claimed that American-led coalition airstrikes have already killed over 6,000 of the ISIS– a significant portion of the group’s fighting force.

Now, reports from human rights groups show that the U.S.’ “unilateral action” is doing little to save innocent civilians, and is likely to exacerbate the bitter conflict – now entering its fourth year, with no end in sight.

Syria’s conflicts has already sent scores of refugees pouring into Lebanon, Egypt and Europe, often in risky and dangerous ways. Fadel Abdulghany, founder of Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), denounced Western countries’ disregard for the humanitarian situation in Syria, pointing to his organization’s 30 per cent tally of women and children casualties.

While U.S. officials touted the results of its airstrikes against the ISIS, foreign military intervention may be hastening defectors to Daesh and worsening the situation on the ground, according to reports by The Guardian. On the other hand The Syrian army stepped up its own campaign on the armed group, and may even be pushing fighters from the constellation of hostile factions to join the only group with the ambition to seize total control of the country – the ISIS.

Though SNHR’s statistics intensifying focus on Daesh extolled by U.S. officials in both rhetoric and policy has started to garner sympathy among some Syrians. In September 2014, the remnants of FSA central command refused to join a coalition with the U.S.-backed al-Hazzem Momvement to fight against the ISIS on the ground, although the group has accepted weapons and training from the U.S. to fight on their own.

Military intervention has, up until this point, proved hopelessly unsuccessful at bringing the Syria conflict to any kind of peaceful resolution. Inserting more violence and weaponry would likely add more fuel to the fiery quagmire of the Syrian conflict, and send the region spiraling away from peace and further into a self-repeating cycle of warfare.

Noting the devastating results of ISIS’ seizure of American tanks and heavy artillery in Mosul, Iraq in June 2014, journalist Abby Martin said: “What politicians never seem to understand is that when they bomb any human being, it leaves behind not only dead bodies – but widows, children, and parents – leading to countless more radicalized to join the fight against whatever force that killed their family.”