Former Pentagon Chief Chuck Hagel said in an interview to defensenews.com: "Well, I don't think the United States is going to be anywhere near making that final decision. How could we? What capabilities, what leverage do we have? What card do we have? Two thousand people in northeastern Syria? To do what? The Russians are [there], and they're not going anywhere, they're in big time. Assad gets stronger every day. The Iranians are in there, they're not going. The Turks now are opposed to us. So the question is: How is the U.S. going to influence the outcome of Syria?"

Training and equipping the PKK's Syrian affiliates led to the terrorist group's ravaging Arab cities with air bombardments and causing forced migration. They lost all the trust of the Syrian opponents, as they did not take any action although they claimed that their primary target was the Assad regime, while Assad resorted to chemical weapons, which is a "red line" to them, numerous times. Meanwhile, they remained as mere spectators when Iran and Russia and consequently Assad seized control over a substantial part of the country. Besides, since they trained and equipped the PKK, which poses a primary threat to NATO ally Turkey's security, the group developed closer ties with Russia and Iran and pushed its stance against Assad to the background. This does not sound like an accomplishment, right?

Furthermore, we know that the Geneva process has lost its meaning and can only be revived if compounded with the Astana talks conducted by Turkey, Iran and Russia. Considering that the U.S.-backed Peopletarget="_blank"'>