Spotlight: U.S. flawed policies fuel terrorism, leave lasting wounds in Middle East

The United States' flawed policies, including its double standards in counter-terrorism in Mideast, have left deep scars and negative repercussions on the region, and led to the expansion of terrorism, experts here said.

The Middle East has been suffering from wars and chaos since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, Syrian analysts said, adding that the U.S. military intervention in both countries was part of the reason behind the rise of extremist ideology.

The Western support of the regime changes, during the so-called Arab Spring, has also played a role in exacerbating chaos and terrorism in the region, according to analysts.

Syrian analysts said Washington's double standards in counter-terrorism have complicated any effort to find solutions to the crisis in the region.

U.S. DOUBLE STANDARDS LED TO RISE OF TERRORISTS IN SYRIA

Rajab Attalah, a Syrian analyst, said the U.S. hasn't abandoned its policies to support certain armed groups to achieve a desirable goal in a targeted country.

Hamdi Abdullah, another Syrian analyst, agreed that "the West and the U.S. have relied on jihadi groups to achieve their own interests," which is a form of the U.S. double standards.

Abdullah said the U.S. wanted to repeat the scenario of Afghanistan when it supported the jihadist groups such as al-Qaida in the face of the former Soviet Union, by supporting them again in Syria to bring down the administration of President Bashar al-Assad.

Maher Murhej, head of the Syrian Youth Party, said the origin of terrorism goes back to 9/11 after which the U.S. sensed the threats of the Islamist groups and made studies on ways to push the potential radicals out of its soil. He said Washington wanted to create areas viable for jihad far from its terrain.

He added that terrorists have for long been in the Arab world as "sleeping cells" which boomed thanks to the presence of arms and weapons made available by foreign security apparatus that worked to instill anarchy in this region.

"Their double standards in countering terrorism have increased the number of terrorists in Iraq and Syria," Maher Murhej, a Syrian analyst said.

He said America has contributed in increasing terrorism in Syria since 2011 till today, making Syria a new attraction place for jihadists.

He said the negative repercussions of the U.S. policies and conducts have a long-lasting effect.

"Iraq is still suffering from extremist groups and explosions and all of what happened since 2011 in Syria was another attempt to open new areas for terrorism," Ihsan, an expert, said.

Ihasan said that Syria and Iraq not only attracting global jihadists but new groups are being created in both countries as a result of the chaos.

Analysts said the U.S. flawed policies in the Arab region are "negative" for the Arabs, but not for America. They said the consecutive U.S. administrations have always put the interests of America in the first place and exported distorted ideologies to the Middle East under the pretext of bringing about democracy to the Arab region.

Sharif Shehade, a Syrian legislator, told Xinhua that "those who think that the United States wants democracy for this region, must be deluding themselves."

U.S. USES 11/9 ATTACK AS PRETEXT TO SPREAD TERRORISM

11/9 events were the U.S. pretext to spread terrorism in the Middle East, said Dr. Saed al-Lawendi, expert with Ahram Center for Political and Strategic studies.

After 11/9 event, the arm deals were accelerated around the world as a pretext for combating terrorism in light of the war launched by U.S. president Bush against terrorism in 2001 by invading Afghanistan, then Iraq in 2003.

In 2006, sales of the U.S. weapons reached its climax and the U.S. arms exportations reached 41.9 percent of the world deals, which equals 16.9 billion dollars.

He added that 14 years after 11/9 attack, the Middle East and the neighboring countries have became hot spots for the terrorist groups, and dozens of new terrorist movements have emerged.

All the index asserted that the U.S. war on terrorism in participation of the U.S. allies hadn't minimized the volume of terror. On the contrary, it has expanded terrorist groups and increased its activities and diversified its branches, with better military, financial and human capabilities.

The U.S. employs all the events for its interests for more control of the world, said Noha Bakir, professor of international relations with the American University in Cairo.

Of course the U.S. has won a lot sine 11/9 attack, as it penetrated most of the Middle East under pretexts of combating terrorism, spreading democracy and freedom, he added.

U.S.-LED INVASTION PLUNGED IRAQ INTO BLOODSHED

Ever since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the country is no longer a strong and unified state and the people of Iraq are living in misery with almost daily bloodshed, ethnic and sectarian division, unremitting political row, chaos and deteriorating public services, he said.

Moreover, it lead to the rise of Islamic extremism, including the growth of the Islamic State (IS) group, which captured large parts of the country's predominantly Sunni Arab provinces.

Sabah al-Sheikh, a political analyst told Xinhua that It became clear the successive U.S. administrations took advantage of the war on terror to justify a more aggressive strategy, which is to deploy its forces to eliminate some threats and to intimidate other countries," Sheikh said.

"The result of the U.S.-led invasion to Iraq was catastrophic as they replaced tyranny with tyranny and plunged the country into chaos," Sheikh said.

The United states' flawed policy after 9/11 attack created political inefficiency, social injustice and instability in the post-war Iraq, such situation prompted rapid growth of extremist and militant groups in the region, Sheikh said.

The United States peruses double standard policy in dealing with the counter-terrorism efforts across the world. The U.S. is responsible for the bloodshed in Iraq and in the Middle East, Sheikh added.

U.S. AND NATO LEFT A MESS IN LIBYA

Ahmed Turkia, senior adviser for Libya's official LANA agency, said that years have passed since NATO-led coalition forces toppled Libya's late leader Muammar Gaddafi, the North African country is still engulfed in chaos and violence.

Ahmad said he is not satisfied with the situation in Libya now, where numerous militant groups and warlords fighting with each other.

"The security situation is worse and the economy is worse. And now the U.S. is not even concerned about the situation here," Ahmad said.

Ahmad said right now Libya was also plagued with the extremist group Islamic State, which is active in the eastern city of Derna and Benghazi.

Gasmi Romai, a political analyst, said that after the 2011 turmoil in Libya, the U.S. and NATO clearly left a mess in Libya and since then the country has become a hotbed for terrorism and extremism. Endit