Airstrikes Against Peace In Syria.

by Eze Eluchie,

One is really beginning to pity the people of Syria over the seemingly unending depreciation of their lives, country and future they have been made to endure these past 5 years. Without any doubts, there might have been genuine grievances against the Al-Assad regime which led to the commencement of efforts at revolt in 2011, at the same time the Arab world was engulfed in the now infamous Arab Spring. What has since become clear now is that foreign forces are now using the different sides in the Syrian conflict as pawns in a most atrocious proxy war which is leaving Syria and its people utterly devastated.

More worrisome is the unfolding reality that the conflict in Syria, going by observed trends, may continue in perpetuity, at least for the foreseeable future. This worry is rooted in the fact that any efforts at addressing critical issues in the conflict or opportunities to arbitrate or attain meaningful ceasefires are deliberately undermined in such a manner that encourages the various combatants in the conflict to dig deeper into their trenches.

Two instances of these ‘dashing-of-hopes-for-peace’ instances readily come to mind. Firstly, the Turkey shoot-down of a Russian Air Force jet at a time when ISIS and other collateral terrorists in the Syrian conflict were feeling the dire impact of sustained Russian air-power. The downing of the Russian jet by a NATO member-state, which was obviously hiding under the cloak of collective security offered by NATO membership, served to dampen Russian efforts at strafing ISIS out of existence and created a crack in the resolve by the international community to destroy ISIS. 

The more recent scuttling of the Syrian ceasefire agreement painstakingly arrived at in the course of several meetings between the Foreign Ministers of the United States and Russia, via lethal airstrikes by US soldiers which killed over 60 Syrian soldiers in the area around the Deit al-Zour, is particularly unfortunate. The US airstrikes in question, attacks which accorded opposition/terrorist elements some advantage over the Syrian Government positions prior to the inception of the ceasefire, occurred barely 48 hours to occurrence of an important milestone in the ceasefire processes - the 7-day observance of cessation of hostilities, a milestone that would have for the first time witnessed the harmonization of intelligence capabilities of the US and Russian militaries towards confronting an identified adversary, extremist Islamist terrorist organizations. The world did indeed miss out on an opportunity to unify resources and efforts against ISIS, and by extension, global Islamist terrorism.

The US airstrikes against Syrian soldiers practically ended the ceasefire agreement. Feeble excuses of mistakes in targeting rendered by US authorities were rightly discountenanced – mistaken mass murders indeed! The official announcement of the end of the ceasefire agreement some 24 hours later by the Syrian Government was expected by all except the undiscerning. Once more, a unique opportunity to end the Syrian war and its attendant humanitarian crisis had been lost. The declaration of the end of the ceasefire was immediately followed by a most dastardly attack on the convoy conveying much needed United Nations humanitarian supplies to the besieged people of Aleppo, an attack which killed several humanitarian workers and volunteers.   

Opinions have been expressed in some quarters that the attack on the aid convoy and the killings of humanitarian workers therein amounts to war crimes. There is nothing wrong with that line of thought, so long as it also accepts that the perpetrators of the precipitating factor of the attack, the airstrikes on the Syrian soldiers in Deir al-Zour, should likewise be held accountable as accomplices to the crime.

It appears quite clear that forces outside of Syria and the control of Syrians are intent on ensuring the continuation of  war in Syria, and bombing this most historic of countries back into the dark ages. To end the multiplicity of conflicts raging concurrently in Syria, it is incumbent on the sitting Government of Bashir al-Assad to begin to exercise genuine leadership by firstly requesting all foreign forces not in sync with its authority to depart from Syrian territory and follow up with spirited extermination of the ISIS forces in its territory. Genuine peace overtures should thereafter be extended to the myriad of warring elements operating in Syria, some of which are affiliated to extremist Islamist entities, with a view to getting them on board a ‘transitional unity government’. The current Syrian Government and those willing to work in collaboration with it should not be deterred in frontally confronting any forces, internal or external, which continues to meddle in Syrian affairs after the olive-branch had been offered to all concerned.

The continuing carnage in Syria is a shame on all humanity.

The Syrian Government under Bashir al-Assad have a duty to stop, as soon as possible, the continuing bleeding of Syria and its peoples.

Picture: Continuing devastation in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city.