Syria? Remember, Syria? The locale of a civil war brutally put down by the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad? Well, the civil war is not over. Neither is the brutality, the swelling numbers of refugees, the threats to neighboring countries, not to mention the homelessness and the split families.
Despite many announcements of victory, the Assad regime has not completely conquered the Syrian rebels, which means that another potential million refugees threaten to cross into Turkey and ultimately into Europe, some ending up on rickety boats that capsize in the Mediterranean. Turkey posts its soldiers at the border to stop being overrun by Syrian refugees. Both Turks and Syrians die in this equation.
Brutality? It’s relentless bombing of innocents, yes; it’s decimated homes and neighborhoods, too. It is also starvation. That is Assad’s tactic against Damascus neighborhoods populated by rebels.
In little more than a week, it will be March, 2020. That puts the civil war in Syria at eight years’ duration. No one does much, except Iran, to exploit the suffering in order to position weapons closer to Israel. Israel defends itself, as it must. No country troubles itself to put an end to the civil war, which means: putting an end to Assad.
Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News
