This is as clear an account of U.S. complicity in the Syrian catastrophe as we may hope soon to see.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ending-syrian-civil-war-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2016-02#glK40j00TkED0br7.99
FEB 29, 2016 37

Ending the Syrian War

Jeffrey D. Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is also Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals.

NEW YORK – Syria is currently the world’s greatest humanitarian catastrophe and most dangerous geopolitical hotspot. The Syrian people are caught in a bloodbath, with more than 400,000 dead and ten million displaced.
Violent jihadist groups backed by outside patrons mercilessly ravage the country and prey on the population. All parties to the conflict – President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the anti-Assad forces supported by the United States and its allies, and the Islamic State – have committed, and continue to commit, serious war crimes.
It is time for a solution. But such a solution must be based on a transparent and realistic account of what caused the war in the first place.
The chronology is as follows. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ending-syrian-civil-war-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2016-02#glK40j00TkED0br7.99