Russian official doubts US indeed learned lesson from invasion of Iraq

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. Senior Russian senator Frantz Klintsevich said on Tuesday if the United States indeed had learned a lesson from the 2003 invasion of Iraq then Washington would have given up its attempts to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"I’m not sure that the US indeed learned all lessons from the intervention in Iraq. In this case, they should have abandoned any attempts to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad and allowed people to choose the fate of the current authorities themselves," Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the Committee for Defense and Security at the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, told TASS.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday a basic lesson that Washington learned after the 2003 invasion of Iraq is that the US will not be successful and nor will anyone else "in imposing a military solution on the problems inside of Syria."

Klintzevich said this statement is "rather indicative." "As they say, better late than never. Although calling a mistake a military operation that resulted in a terroristic chaos of the whole region that has lasted for a second decade already is just the American style," he said.

The senator said despite all the assurances "the US is again trying to impose its will on the entire nation."

The coalition forces led by the US invaded Iraq in 2003 under pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction. Washington also accused Baghdad of cooperating with the Al Qaeda international terrorist organization.