Every language that uses the alphabet (or any variation thereof) is a phonetic language. The fact that nearly all phonetic languages have absorbed words from other languages doesn't negate that.
The fact that you can also somehow learn to read English through the whole word sight reading method also doesn't negate the fact that it's a phonetic language.
I don't have a stake in the argument over the best way to learn how to read since I have only vaguely learned what all this is about, mainly from seeing threads like this on FR. It is quite possible that you are correct that emphasis on sight words is bad when one is learning to read. Nevertheless, it is clear that English is not an entirely phonetic language. If it were, all these words would end with the same sound:
bough
cough
dough
And they wouldn't be spelled in this absurd fashion.