When Did The U.S. Give Up On Overthrowing Syrian President Assad?

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on September 26, 2013. SANA/Handout via Reuters/File Photo

Robert Fisk, The Independent: This moment will go down in history: the US has given up on the overthrow of Assad in Syria

When Washington ‘understands the difficult conditions’ its militia allies are facing and says it ‘advises’ the Russians and Syrians not to violate a ceasefire – which was Moscow’s idea in the first place – you know that the Americans are pulling the carpet from beneath another set of allies.

It will be called the great betrayal. And it was a long time coming. But the grim message from Washington to the anti-Assad fighters of southern Syria – that they could expect no help from the West in their further struggle against Assad’s regime or the Russians – will one day figure in the history books. It’s a turning point in the Syria war, a shameful betrayal if you happen to belong to the wreckage of the “Free Syrian Army” and its acolytes around the city of Deraa, and a further victory for the Assad regime in its ambition to retake all of rebel Syria.

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WNU Editor: The U.S. gave up a long time ago to overthrow Syrian President Assad. If I was to pinpoint a date .... it was probably when the Obama administration realized that should Assad fall and the Islamists take over, the chaos that they would would unleash on the entire region was a possibility  that had to be avoided at all cost. Instead .... brokering a political solution was the preferred option .... but the Russians and Iranians were not interested. As for President Trump .... he wrote off Syria even before he was inaugurated.