Obama and Syria: what he got right and wrong

Barrack Obama's foreign policy has led to some controversial decisions in the Middle-East - the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the overthrow of the Libyan Government and the Iran Nuclear Deal are chief among them. As well as these has been his policy on Syria. In this article it will be highlighted what he got right and what he got wrong.

1) Obama was wrong to fund ISIS in Syria

Chief among Obama's failures in foreign policy was his funding of the rebels in Syria. Nearly all of these rebels who fought the Syrian Government were supported by the Islamic State in Iraq, formerly Al-Qaeda in Iraq, now known as the Islamic State or ISIS. This terror group was initially created in the Iraq War by the Bush Administration, though did benefit enormously from Obama's Syrian rebel funding. It was little surprise, therefore, when the majority of the Syrian Opposition's territory fell under ISIS - ISIS were Obama's top henchmen in Syria.

Under normal circumstances, Obama was right to withdraw from Iraq. But funding Iraq's #1 enemy in a neighbouring civil war had a predictable, ugly outcome: ISIS ended up controlling one third of Iraq by August 2014, 3 years after withdrawing troops from Iraq.

This irrational behaviour has led many in Iraq and Syria into the belief that America created ISIS. They are not wrong, as without Bush and Obama's meddling in both conflicts, ISIS would never have existed.

2) Obama was wrong to call the Syrian Government 'illegitimate'

The absolute hypocrisy of the Obama Administration is in the funding of rebels in Syria associated with ISIS while also calling the Syrian Government illegitimate. The illegitimate players in Syria were not the Syrian Government, who strove to protect all major cities and minorities from these rebels heralding from an ISIS-minded insurgency.

The illegitimate powers in Syria were those funded by the Obama Administration to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad. For Obama to have the gall to call for the removal of Assad, even after seeing what happened in Iraq with Saddam Hussein, is unacceptable behaviour from a President of the United States.

3) Obama was right to wage war on ISIS

After most of the Syrian Opposition fell into ISIS' hands and plundered neighbouring Iraq, Obama was right to return to wage his war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria. He was right to focus on building anti-ISIS forces rather than putting American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. In doing so, he showed powers like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey that he would not put up with Islamism running counter to American interest.

4) Obama was right to not overthrow Bashar Al-Assad

Nearly all the neo-con hawks called for the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad. That Obama resisted this pressure is nothing short of remarkable. Syria has a very real chance of being rebuilt after the civil war because Obama refused to install a 'no-fly-zone' in Syria and overthrow Bashar Al-Assad.

One thing Obama did not want for his legacy was a major blunder in foreign policy. Though his funding ISIS in Syria in the first place was a major blunder; though Obama did install a 'no-fly-zone' in Libya and overthrow Gidaffi, these blunders were never to the same extent as those of the Bush Administration in Iraq.

What is interesting to note is that had Obama removed Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, it would have resulted in a conflict worse than the Iraq War, in which America would have gotten bogged down. For not overthrowing Bashar Al-Assad, Obama does have the thanks of the Syrian people.