All aboard?
The Syrian civil war is fast degenerating into an unprecedented international crisis – in terms of deaths, refugees, and international diplomacy. First the Americans helped their Turkish, Saudi and GCC friends fund and arm the Syrian opposition. Then they allowed the growth of Jabhat al-Nusra and Da’ish. Then, when one American was beheaded by the groups, they – with NATO partners — started aerial bombardment of Da’ish in Raqqa. All this while they were aiding the so called ‘moderate opposition’ and allegedly fighting the caliphate.
So, western powers, along with Turkey and GCC, first set up the Free Syrian Army, then aided – directly and indirectly – al-Nusra and ISIS to bring down the Assad regime. But then they bombed ISIS, which still seeks Assad’s removal, but remained friends with ‘moderate’ factions. Then Russia’s more pronounced entry clearly rattled some nerves. NATO was jolted. Russian airpower guaranteed Assad’s position – at least for the time being – and Da’ish’s fall, in the long run. That, among other things, explains NATO’s frustration, and what many are calling a gross miscalculation, which came out with Turkey shooting down a Russian jet recently. Even if the aim was not enhancing Russia-NATO tensions, there is, nevertheless, much more friction now than very recently.
But the Paris attacks complicated the Syrian war perhaps more than most things. Suddenly France, Britain and Germany are also going to partake in bombing Raqqa in one form or another. Why these countries think militants are still holed up there, waiting for more countries to bomb them, is not explained. The only people who do really suffer are the few poor civilians still trapped there. Increasingly, it seems, Syria and the wider Middle East is becoming an open, entrenched space for proxy warfare. And with time, instead of coming closer to a solution, the Syrian quagmire is degenerating. Unfortunately, the best that the developed world can do, seemingly, is hop on to the anti-IS bandwagon and bomb away.