Are you wondering what the heck is going on in Syria and why there are so many refugees? What’s the history there? Who is right and who is wrong? Which side does America support?
Interestingly, the answers to those questions change with each video I watched, each person who I discussed this with, every article I read, and from what country the reporting is being done. I had no idea the level of complication that is the Syrian War. Some say the refugees are the fault of the dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Some say it is because of the terrorists in Syria. But what is everyone fighting about? We’ll discuss that and more.
It is very important to know the various sides of these questions in order to form your own opinion. A lot of what I found dare not be said aloud in America. But I’m doing it! If I have some kind of random, weird accident that debilitates me or kills me, I can’t tell you who did it, but it may be due to some of what I am writing here, and what I said on air!
I read one article that summed it up in a pretty funny way. This was from the website “imgur” and it was titled This Will Clear Everything Up For You, from November 20, 2015.
“President Assad (who is bad) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his people rebelled and the Rebels ( who are good ) started winning ( Hurrah!). But then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic State ( who are definitely bad!) and some continued to support democracy ( who are still good.) So the Americans (who are good) started bombing Islamic State (who are bad) and giving arms to the Syrian Rebels (who are good) so they could fight Assad (who is still bad) which was good. By the way, there is a breakaway state in the north run by the Kurds who want to fight IS (which is a good thing) but the Turkish authorities think they are bad, so we have to say they are bad whilst secretly thinking they're good and giving them guns to fight IS (which is good) but that is another matter. Getting back to Syria. So President Putin (who is bad, cos he invaded Crimea and the Ukraine and killed lots of folks including that nice Russian man in London with polonium poisoned sushi) has decided to back Assad (who is still bad) by attacking IS (who are also bad) which is sort of a good thing? But Putin (still bad ) thinks the Syrian Rebels (who are good ) are also bad, and so he bombs them too, much to the annoyance of the Americans (who are good) who are busy backing and arming the rebels (who are also good). Now Iran (who used to be bad, but now they have agreed not to build any nuclear weapons and bomb Israel are now good) are going to provide ground troops to support Assad (still bad) as are the Russians (bad) who now have ground troops and aircraft in Syria. So a Coalition of Assad (still bad) Putin (extra bad) and the Iranians (good, but in a bad sort of way) are going to attack IS (who are bad) which is a good thing, but also the Syrian Rebels (who are good) which is bad. Now the British (obviously good, except that nice Mr Corbyn in the corduroy jacket, who is probably bad) and the Americans (also good) cannot attack Assad (still bad) for fear of upsetting Putin (bad) and Iran (good / bad) and now they have to accept that Assad might not be that bad after all compared to IS (who are super bad). So Assad (bad) is now probably good, being better than IS (but let’s face it, drinking your own wee is better than IS so no real choice there) and since Putin and Iran are also fighting IS that may now make them Good. America (still Good) will find it hard to arm a group of rebels being attacked by the Russians for fear of upsetting Mr Putin (now good) and that nice mad Ayatollah in Iran (also Good) and so they may be forced to say that the Rebels are now Bad, or at the very least abandon them to their fate. This will lead most of them to flee to Turkey and on to Europe or join IS (still the only constantly bad group). To Sunni Muslims, an attack by Shia Muslims (Assad and Iran) backed by Russians will be seen as something of a Holy War, and the ranks of IS will now be seen by the Sunnis as the only Jihadis fighting in the Holy War and hence many Muslims will now see IS as Good (Doh!.) Sunni Muslims will also see the lack of action by Britain and America in support of their Sunni rebel brothers as something of a betrayal (mmm. might have a point) and hence we will be seen as Bad. So now we have America (now bad) and Britain (also bad) providing limited support to Sunni Rebels (bad) many of whom are looking to IS (Good / bad) for support against Assad (now good) who, along with Iran (also Good) and Putin (also, now, unbelievably, Good) are attempting to retake the country Assad used to run before all this started? So, now you fully understand everything, all your questions are answered!!!!”
Who all is involved? This gets kinda sticky, and VERY confusing. But I will try to explain some of the major players.
On the side of the Syrian government is the Syrian Army or sometimes called the “Assad Regime”. Russia is siding with Assad and is actually the only foreign power that has its military assets openly stationed there. Also, to a smaller extent or different capacity, the following support the Syrian government: Iran, Hezbollah, Venezuela, North Korea (DPRK), Algeria, Iraq, and Lebanon.
The “Opposition” rebels are actually a few different groups. These are the “good rebels” that America supports. The Syrian National Coalition receives financial, logistical, political and in some cases military support from major Sunni states in the Middle East allied with the U.S., most notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. The FSA, or Free Syria Army, was founded July 29, 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces who said their goal was to bring down the Assad government. In late 2011, they were considered the main Syrian military defectors group. From July 2012 on, turmoil within the organization weakened them, and the jihadist groups basically took over. For that reason, since 2014, many people have been skeptic concerning the FSA and its structure, saying many people call themselves part of the "Free Syrian Army", but people question their actual existence anymore.
Then there are the “bad” rebels. There are many of these groups, as well. ISIS (Islamic State of Israel and Syria) is in some places. Most people have heard of them, and they are scary. ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) also exist in some places in Syria and are considered terrorists as well. They actually receive support from several non-state groups and organizations from across the Muslim World. And lastly, there is a group called Jabhat al-Nusra. This one is extra confusing, because they were actually part of Al Qaeda but split from them, and they have renamed themselves, as of this July, to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. (I am guessing that means something in Arabic, but I don’t know what and don’t care enough to research it.)
So what makes some rebels good and some bad? I watched “The Syrian War Explained” by Vox, and the video actually had contradictory information from other sources I had seen. They said the Syrian government started shooting into a crowd of peaceful protestors and that was the beginning of the war. They also said Assad ordered chemical warfare that killed thousands of civilians. (Note that this was disproven by the UN later.) They said Russia entered the war saying they would fight Isis but they have actually only fought the rebels (who America supports).
So, on to another video it was. This one explained that the division of land in the Middle East is because of different sects of religions. They said that the geographical borders were set up after WW1 and they are artificial; they only sort of separate Suni and Shiits. This video explained that the war started when Assad had government officials shoot at peaceful protests in 2011 (this is consistent with other reports). It went on to explain that there are many different groups in Syria fighting the war, and all of them want to get rid of Assad. However, Russia and China are both allies with Assad now. Russia actually got the chemical weapons out of Syria after other countries “encouraged” it. And apparently Turkey is also arming rebel groups.
I wanted to know more about Assad, so I watched a YouTube video about how evil he was. The journalist was a very sweet sounding girl, and in the background played lighthearted music. She sounded sincere and educated in her vilification of Assad. But is she telling the truth, or is it propaganda?
Every video provides slightly different information. From what I can tell, basically, ALL sides have been guilty of killing innocent civilians. Whether the deaths are intentional or in error, they are still people who have died in this war. In addition to outright murders of individuals and mass killings by bombs, airstrikes, etc, humanitarian aid has been prevented from being delivered to the civilians in many areas. In many places, the Rebels are preventing civilians from fleeing Syria and they are holding the innocent hostage. They repeatedly set off car bombs and shoot innocent people daily in the areas where they maintain control. The Syrian army and Russia have injured and/or killed innocent civilians, including women and children, multiple times this year alone. Their attempt is to take out the rebels, but sometimes the innocent civilians have also paid the ultimate price. And no, we are not innocent! Yes, even the United States has been found to have killed MANY innocent civilians. In fact, just recently, on July 19 of this year, a U.S.-led coalition airstrike hit the city of Manbij, which was controlled by the Islamic State, and killed at least 56 civilians, including 11 children, and injure dozens more. Heck, on September 17, the U.S. accidentally targeted the Syrian army rather than ISIS and killed at least 62 Syrian troops fighting ISIS. Russia's U.N. Ambassador said that the U.S. airstrike put "a very big question mark" over the future of the U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement in Syria, then added that in his decades as a diplomat he had "never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness as we are witnessing today." But don’t think the U.S. is the only one; like I said-all sides have killed innocent civilians.
America’s stance is that basically Assad is an evil dictator and when the citizens decided to overthrow the government, we supported that idea. I watched a YouTube video of an American politician reporting the American stances on the situation in Syria. The guy was saying most people are not being held hostage by the rebels. He said that the government forces are “taking” Eastern Aleppo. (IT IS THEIRS TO BEGIN WITH! They aren’t TAKING it! They are taking it BACK!) His words about the Syrian Government’s fight were that there has been a “huge loss of life as part of the military operation”. (Personal commentary: THAT IS WHAT WAR DOES!)
I hate to admit this, but I agree with Trump. In an interview I watched, he explained that “everybody who has touched the Middle East has gotten bogged down”. He basically thinks we should butt out and minimize our footprint over there.
In a 2015 interview, Assad had this to say.
The Press: The civil war has been going on four years. What is now left of Syria?
Bashar al-Assad: If they talk about the infrastructure, much of it is destroyed. But it's about the people, what the people left, that is the question. And it comes, as it resists this dark ideology that have brought from different countries the terrorists. I think the majority of people, regardless of their political color, now supports their government. Continue supporting the unity of Syria and thus an integrated society, which is composed of a multi-colored spectrum.
You want to say everything is on one side, even the United Nations?
Of course, definitely, it is politicized. Even the UN, which is indeed controlled by the US. And the US against Syria. You want to do research? Then come to Syria!
Then I watched a press conference at the UN and there was a journalist, Eva Bartlett, who said quite the opposite from what we are told in the U.S. She actually pretty much mimicked what Assad said. She said the CORPORATE MEDIA OF THE WEST IS LYING. She has been to Syria 6 times, and Aleppo 4 of these 6 times. 4 of these trips were self-funded or paid for from fundraising rather than paid for by mainstream media or any company. She speaks fluent Arabic and communicates with the people there in Arabic. She explained how a ceasefire is useless because terrorists will not abide by ceasefire. She also pointed out that the American government did not even abide by the last one and killed 83+ Syrian soldiers, which allowed ISIS to gain ground. (Note that in every other reference, I saw that at least 62 soldiers were killed in this September 17 attack, but the point is the same regardless.)
Ms. Bartlett went on to explain that the people of Aleppo support the government and thank the government for their liberation (terrorists prevent the people from leaving and they prevent food and aid, but the government is doing its best to help the people). She said that when people try to flee the areas controlled by the rebels, they are shot at by the terrorists.
Eva then went on to name specific media outlets that are straight out lying to the people. She said the “Corporate Media” that tells you what is opposite from reality is from BBC, Guardian, and New York Times, for instance.
A little while later in the press conference, she talked about the fact that the destruction is not just to material items; it is to the people! She tells about actual people she met and how they feel about the war. They say they did not want this and they want their lives back. They support the Syrian government and are grateful for the aid they have provided.
Then the final nail in the coffin in that press conference came when a Smug reporter questions her in a very condescending way about whether she has conducted “surveys” to prove what she is saying. He says that his sources on the ground there completely contradict everything she is saying and he asks for proof of what she is saying. So, Ms. Eva Bartlett got my kudos FOR SURE when she fired back and asked him what sources were in Eastern Aleppo. The man was silent, so she replied by telling him he cannot respond because there are NONE. His “sources” are fabricated or an altered reality because they are not actually there. Her response really was CLASSIC and I HIGHLY recommend anyone who wants to know about what is REALLY going on in Syria watch the video!
I wanted to know how this all began so I researched it from the beginning. My shortened version is below.
First of all, we have to go back to the beginning of the conflict. Most activists regard March 18, 2011 as the first deaths of the uprising. On 18 March, 2011, security forces opened fire on a peaceful protest and killed 4 protesters. Demonstrations spread. This was during something called the Arab Spring, where activists from multiple dictatorship countries were overthrowing their governments. In June of that year, many police and soldiers in Jisr al-Shughour, in north-eastern Syria, joined the protesters they were ordered to shoot, and the uprising claimed control of a town for the first time. President Barack Obama soon afterwards called on Assad to resign and ordered the Syrian government assets frozen. Assad did not step down and continued having forces fight the opposition. Some people began to flee the country beginning around this time because they feared the extent of the war, and rightfully so.
The following year, in the summer of 2012, fighting spread to Aleppo, which was Syria’s largest city. If you have ever heard of Gary Johnson, you probably know what Aleppo is, or have at least heard the word. His infamous “and what is Aleppo?” statement made millions of people scoff (even though the Americans scoffing probably had to google it to know what it was. I’m not gonna lie-I did.) That summer, UN-Arab League tried to broker a ceasefire, but it failed.
The rebel forces captured Raqqa in March of 2013, and this became the first major city that was controlled by the opposition. In the beginning of that summer, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and Assad’s forces recaptured Qusair from rebels. This is near the border with Lebanon (I guess hence the reason the Lebanese assisted).
Ok…this is where it kinda starts getting confusing. Late that summer, in August through September, a chemical weapons attack in Damascus kills hundreds of innocent civilians. People from the West blamed the Assad regime for the chemical attacks and Obama said he would not stand for the inhumane treatment by a government like that. What’s that? You thought it was deemed to be the Assad regime that killed all those civilians? Nope. The UN later did an investigation into it and found that the chemicals were not military grade, they had witnesses and video of the rebels with these chemicals in their possession, and it was determined that the chemical attack on civilians was most likely the rebels.
But back to 2013. Under international pressure (mostly because the West was accusing Assad of this, but facilitated by Russia), Syria destroyed its chemical weapons production equipment. The number of Syrian refugees registered with the UN topped two million at that time.
2014 brought more fighting and even among the rebels. So now the rebels are fighting each other as well as the Assad regime. The UN-Arab mediator tried to have peace talks in February, but they ended without resolve. On May 9, the rebels withdrew from the old quarter of Homs, which seemed like a significant victory for the government. In June, Syria held elections and the Syrians in government areas voted Assad, one of three candidates, into office with an overwhelmingly 88.7%.
Now it gets even more complicated: also in June, ISIS took control of most of the northern and western Iraq and declared themselves an Islamic caliphate. The very next month, Isis took control of Syria’s largest oil field, al-Omar. In August, ISIS released video of the beheading of an American journalist, James Foley. He was the first of five Westerners to be beheaded.
In September of 2014, a US-led coalition began air strikes against ISIS in Syria.
When 2015 came, there was an estimated death toll of at least 220,000 people and about a third of the pre-war population of 23 million had been uprooted from their homes.
As if there were not already enough people fighting from various places in this war, then another was introduced. With the help of US-led air strikes, Kurdish fighters took control of Kobani in late January.
In February, ISIS released a video of a Jordanian pilot in a cage, getting burned to death. In March, the Islamist group al-Nusra took control of the north-western city of Idlib.
Later in 2015, last year, Russia decided to take a bigger role in assisting Assad. In the end of September, they began launching air strikes in Syria in support of Assad’s forces.
In November, seventeen nations met in Vienna to adopt a timeline for a transition plan in Syria. In December, The UN Security Council endorsed the Vienna road map by adopting Resolution 2254.
That brings us to this year! This year has been an important year, for better or worse. In early February, indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva collapse… after just a few days. But later in February, on the 22, the U.S. and Russia announced a partial ceasefire in Syria that would start just 5 days later. During the 5 day long ceasefire, over 118 people were killed, including 24 civilians. Meanwhile, in non-truce areas, the dead grew to 552, mostly in clashes against the ISIS.
In June and July, MANY innocent civilians were killed by the Syrian army, rebels, and whoever else was over there. Everyone just seems to be killing everyone, and not much resolve seems to be coming out of the war.
Lately
On June 18, rebels captured from government control Zeitan, Khalsa and Barna - which lie near a main highway that links Aleppo with the capital Damascus. On July 10, Francois Hollande, the President of France, called for international military action against the Al Nusra Front, saying “We (the International Coalition) must also avoid a situation whereby as ISIS becomes weaker, other groups become stronger.” Just a week later, on July 17, the Syrian Army and its allies captured the only road into eastern Aleppo.
Then another big oops…on July 20, fighters of rebel group that was funded by the CIA recorded themselves beheading a 12 years old Palestinian. The U.S. State Department declares that, if the video is genuine, they would stop sending the group military aid.
On July 30, Russia announces the implementation of several humanitarian corridors for civilians to escape from rebel-held areas of Aleppo towards government territory ahead of a planned Syrian Russian offensive. The Syrian government also offered amnesty to opposition fighters who will surrender.
But there is good news as of today! The Turkish deputy, Mehmet Simsek said that Turkey, the world's largest refugee hosting country, is going to set up a tent city to accommodate up to 80,000 Syrian refugees fleeing Aleppo.
Additionally, a Syria ceasefire apparently brokered by Russia and Turkey without US involvement, was completed today. So what does the future hold? Only time will tell.
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