It
was not even a year ago when the Syrian Civil War was in full swing with the
Free Syrian Army fighting Assad’s forces to a standstill in most of the
southern major cities. The Kurdish forces had control of much of the north and
it appeared as if Assad would have to either resign or enter into a power-sharing
agreement. This would have been the result with U.S intervention. Soldiers on
the ground were not necessary. Coordinated airstrikes and logistical advice for
the rebels would have pushed Assad to the point of surrender. A new formation
of borders would have been implemented with possibly three separate nations
(one by the Assad loyalists, one by the Free Syrian Army, and one by the
Kurdish forces).
Yet the United States did not intervene. No airstrikes were used, no advice was
implemented, and no weapons were given to help fight back against Assad’s new
offensive. This offensive effectively broke the Free Syrian Army and reduced
the moderate faction of the opposition to a mere portion of its former self.
The Islamic Front (more moderate than others yet more radical than the FSA) is
now the predominant group with the Army of the Mujahedeen forming their own
base of fighters. The once seemingly reasonable opposition has turned into a
mix of revolutionary groups that will fight each other as much as they will
fight against Assad’s forces.
Then there is ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) which has broken onto the
news and scared watchers and Wall Street Brokers enough to warrant immediate
attention. The group broke off from Al Qaeda for being “too extreme” in their
desire to create a caliphate. With motivated and well trained fighters, ISIS
has taken up huge swaths of Syria and began a surprisingly successful offensive
in Iraq. Mostly made up of Sunni militants and now being joined by Sunni
militias who feel abused by Prime Minister Maliki’s government, ISIS has been
drawing closer and closer to Baghdad as thousands of government troops have
fled.
The sad truth about this crisis is that it could not have been prevented, but
it could have been contained and on a lesser scale. The Syrian Civil War became
the perfect breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism (especially amongst the
oppressed Sunni population). Facing Assad’s Alawite Islam administration in
Syria and the new Shia government in Iraq, Sunni forces felt pressed, attacked,
and abandoned. Thus ISIS was able to recruit trained and dedicated fighters who
would end up blowing past the weak-willed Iraqi government forces.
If the U.S had intervened and had forced Assad to broker a deal with the FSA,
then the Islamic fundamentalism would have been checked and the rampant growth
of ISIS would have been stalled if not reversed. But the U.S government was
afraid of partitioning Syria’s borders and felt compelled to keep the
imperialist-created borders.
The truly ridiculous thing is that these borders serve no real purpose. They
were designed out of negotiations between European imperial ambitions and
grouped together many ethnic and religious groups which then were pitted
against one another. To keep the borders as they are currently does not promise
stability, it actually may pose the greatest danger to it.
The
current decision of the U.S government regarding the crisis will have resounding
effects for the formation of future Middle East politics. Let us just hope it
will be a good one.
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