The former U.S. ambassador to Russia in President Obama's administration, Michael McFaul, said on Tuesday that the situation in Aleppo, Syria is "a giant failure" of the international community and Obama administration before listing the failures.
"I don't think there's much that can be done in Aleppo," McFaul said. "It's a horrible tragedy, a giant failure of the international community, including my former administration, the Obama administration, and how to deal with it. But, there's no good options now there."
MSNBC's Willie Geist asked McFaul to list the specific failures of the Obama administration in addressing the Syrian cicvil war, which is now in its sixth year.
"So, ambassador, what were the specific failures of the Obama Administration?" Geist asked. "You just described them generally. What could have been done over the last five and a half, six years to prevent the scenes we're seeing this morning in Aleppo?"
Geist appeared to be referencing reports from Tuesday that forces fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been killing civilians on the spot in eastern Aleppo.
"So, you know, these are all counterfactuals," McFaul said. "I don't want to claim that had we done one of these things it would have been different."
Obama's first failure, according to McFaul, was that in the early phases of the Syrian conflict, when there were chances to negotiate, the Obama administration did not adequately take part, allowing Russia to play a stronger role.
"But, in the early phases, when there was a chance for negotiations, we didn't push hard enough for that," he said. "We relied on the Russians. We hoped that they would bring Assad to the table, and that never happened. I was part of those negotiations and that never happened."
The second failure had to do with the red line that Obama drew to respond with military force if Assad used chemical weapons on his own people.
"Second, there was a red line drawn about weapons of mass destruction and the president, after they used those weapons of mass destruction, decided not to use force," McFaul said. "I think that was a big mistake. Even some of that force, maybe it wouldn't have gotten rid of weapons of mass destruction or stopped Mr. Assad, but even taking out some airplanes and taking out some air bases might have reduced the carnage in Aleppo."
McFaul said a third failure of Obama is Russia's presence in Syria, since Moscow did help to assist Bashar al-Assad's regime in bombing civilians in Aleppo.
"And third, remember, Russia is one of the partners bombing Aleppo," he said. "Russia is one of the people attacking these civilians that you just reported on, and we have tried to negotiate with Russia. And I fear moving forward that we're even going to negotiate with them more, and we're going to accept their narrative in Syria in the new Trump administration. That worries me deeply."