U.S. Silence, Regional Chaos: The Unseen Hand in Syria’s Crisis

In just 12 days beginning on November 27, the Syrian Government, led by Bashar al-Assad, was overthrown by insurgent groups supported by a coalition of countries, a process rooted in the Syrian Civil War. This long-running conflict, which has been characterized by many political analysts as a U.S.-led proxy war, started in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s rule, which quickly escalated into a violent and protracted civil war involving multiple factions and foreign powers.

During this recent period, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan took center stage, openly backing various factions, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as the Nusra Front.

These groups launched a heavily armed offensive that eventually overtook Syria’s capital, Damascus. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also claimed responsibility for the regime change, asserting from the Golan Heights that Assad’s downfall was the result of Israeli strikes on Iran and efforts to weaken Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But while regional players did indeed play an important role in toppling the Assad administration, their success would not have been possible without the involvement of the United States. However, U.S. leadership has been conspicuously silent on this point. On December 8, outgoing President Joe Biden stated that the U.S. would work with its allies to maintain a presence in Syria in the name of fostering “stability.”

In contrast, President-elect Donald Trump took to X to call for the U.S. to avoid further involvement in the country. He neither acknowledged the pivotal part that U.S. actions had played in laying the foundation for the chaos now ravaging Syria.

On the military front, the U.S. has supported armed insurgents in Syria since at least 2011 under Operation Timber Sycamore—led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These groups, provided with billions of U.S. dollars in training and arms under the banner of the “Free Syrian Army,” wreaked havoc on Syrian society.

The LA Times in 2016 reported that militias supported by the CIA were clashing with militias funded by the Pentagon near Aleppo, a principal city of north Syria. Some members of these insurgent groups later joined ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria, including HTS’s current leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who in 2017 was designated a wanted terrorist with a $10-million bounty by the U.S. State Department.

Furthermore, the U.S. has maintained a military presence in northeast Syria since 2014, with some 900 troops stationed there. This deployment intends to restrict the country’s access to its wheat and oil fields.

Prominent U.S. think-tanks, including the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and officials have acknowledged that the occupation of Syria was designed to weaken the Central Government and hinder reconstruction efforts following the devastation caused by the initial phases of conflict, which has gone on to claim more than 500,000 lives and displace some 12 million people from their homes across the country since first erupting, according to CBS News on December 9.

In 2020, Trump himself admitted that U.S. troops were retained in Syria to “take the oil.”

On the economic front, the U.S. imposed the “Caesar” sanctions on Syria in 2019, which have severely impacted the Syrian economy.

In 2022, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures Alena Douhan stated that the sanctions “may amount to a crime against humanity” in her report following a visit to Syria. Douhan noted that the sanctions contributed to dire economic conditions, with some 90 percent of Syrians living below the poverty line and millions facing food insecurity. Her report also underlined Syria’s inability to rebuild after the war, exacerbating the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

As for regional geopolitics, the sheer length and breadth of the Syrian conflict and its associated economic strain have indeed created openings for other countries, including Türkiye and Israel, to advance their own interests in Syrian territory.

While these countries have conducted military operations in Syria, the U.S.’s role in carving up Syria and its broader involvement in the region have been the subject of much debate.

The situation in Syria is often discussed within the broader context of U.S. foreign policy, which some critics argue reflects a pattern of interventions in the Middle East. One might even say it embodies former NATO General Wesley Clark’s 2007 statement about U.S. plans to intervene in seven countries over the course of five years in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

U.S. actions toward Syria have been influenced by its concerns over geopolitical shifts, including the emergence of a multipolar world emphasizing global peace and cooperation. These developments have almost certainly played a role in the continuation of U.S. policies in Syria, including economic sanctions and military involvement.

The author is an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst based in the U.S..