Syrian War For Dummies

( Check out Deconstructing the Syrian War, my new e-book on the Syrian war, the most consequential war of recent times)

Although Syria was once the epicenter of a great civilization and powerful empires, it is now a tiny country that most Americans can’t identify on a map. However, Syria has surprisingly taken a disproportionate role in geopolitics, even possibly becoming the flashpoint for a new world war involving the U.S., NATO, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey etc. What’s really going on?

Three versions of the conflict are presented here and the reader can choose the one that makes the most sense.

Disney version

Once upon a time, a country called Syria was ruled by a ruthless dictator named Bashar Al-Assad. He was a cruel man who gassed his own people. His actions caused a civil war in Syria. America and Europe tried their best to stop the devastating civil war, and even generously accepted many Syrian refugees. America may now have to invade Syria to save the Syrian people.

This above version is quite popular among many Americans and Europeans.

High school version

Oppressed by Assad’s brutal regime, the Syrian people longed for freedom and democracy. One day, people started protesting in a small city. In response, Assad killed many peaceful protesters. However, this backfired and the entire country was engulfed in protests. Soon a civil war broke out, which led to millions of refugees fleeing Syria.

America was appalled and, for humanitarian reasons, decided to help the Syrians who were fighting Assad. When Assad gassed his own people, America intervened and removed all his chemical weapons. Unfortunately, Assad managed to gas innocent civilians again after a few years. Many wise people in the media and politics are now demanding that America invade Syria and topple Assad.

The above version is presented in most mainstream media.

College version

Simply put, the Syrian “civil war” is an illegal, proxy war waged against Syria. In defiance of international laws, many countries have been sending weapons and terrorist mercenaries into Syria for the last six years (if you want to gain a deeper understanding of who wants to topple Assad and why, please read my article: “Chaos in Syria: Part 1 – Three Motives and Seven Countries”).

2011

In early 2011, U.S./UK special forces used Jordan’s military base to organize protests against Assad in a border town called Daraa. With Muslim Brotherhood’s organizational skills and Saudi Arabia’s deep pockets, the protests spread thru Syria. Soon, an organized and armed militia known as Free Syrian Army (FSA) was created by the outsiders.

After the fall of Gaddafi in late 2011, deadly weapons such as Stinger missiles and Sarin gas were shipped from Libya to Syria, via Turkey (link). Even with all this help, FSA couldn’t win the war. At this point, NATO and Neocons wanted to bomb Syria, but somehow Russia was able to stop it, so the war of attrition moved on to the next phase.