On July 14, the House of Representatives passed a defense policy bill proposed by Donald Trump to authorize $696 billion budget in fiscal year 2018. The White House claimed it to be a “historic increase in defense spending”.

$75 billion of the sum shall be spent on war funding. One can easily guess what countries will be top priority – among them are Afghanistan, Iraq and first of all Syria.

The recent leak of the U.S. military bases and points’ locations in Syria showed that the American troops are not up to leaving the Syrian soil soon. Washington doesn’t want to confine itself to Raqqa’s liberation and fighting ISIS. Seeing that the U.S. is reminding of an outsider in the battle against Damascus and its allies, the White House decided to bet on the Kurds.

Meanwhile Donald Trump seems to have completely given up the idea of supporting the armed groups of the Syrian opposition, which he characterized as “dangerous and wasteful payments” on his Twitter.

Thus, the strategy of the U.S. to interfere into Syria’s domestic affairs becomes more and more evident. After ISIS is eliminated, Washington shall do anything to set up a loyal and independent Kurdish state. Consequently, Syria will be divided and the United States will control a whole country to promote its interests in the Middle East.

To curb the responses of Damascus and Ankara, the U.S. is slowly building up its presence on the territories controlled by the Kurds. Clearly, upkeeping its own troops and supplying the Kurdish militia requires money, and the White House knows it. This is one of the reasons why the bill was adopted.

Quite peculiar is that the American taxpayers will literally “pay” for Washington’s lobbyist state in the Middle East with their health as some part of the budget increase is formed of Obamacare repeal.

Though the latest events leave not much hope for a bright future but there still exists a chance for the diplomatic solution of the Syrian crisis and for a united Syria.

Originally published by Inside Syria Media Center