The Syrian War

     The current civil war in Syria is in no doubt fuelled by many factors and has its roots dug deep in the history of the troubled region. The long established regime of Al Assad clan and the authoritarian iron grip of power has enjoyed less and less fans from national, regional and international stakeholders. Yes, stakeholders. One cannot deny that what happens at one's backyard will have an immediate effect on one's own home, especially given the state of globalization and interconnection of the world. A troubled Syria does cause problems for its immediate neighbours (mainly Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey) and its neighbours located further away such as Russia, and those located furthest away such as the USA and China. We are all connected, and we should therefore all be concerned. Going back to the reasons behind the conflict, some factors can be mentioned:

• Dire economic conditions suffered by the Syrian people as a result of the international financial crisis and accentuated by the sanctions placed on the country by the USA.
• The wave of democratization and revolution that spread across the Arab world, which motivated and empowered the Syrians to rise against their authorities.
• The growing impatience of the USA and Isreal over Syria's relations with a nuclear Iran, with a growing Hezbollah and popular Hamas.
• The Russian-American struggle over hegemony in the region.
• Pipeline politics, where Syria refused to sign an agreement in 2009 with Qatar that would run a pipeline from Qatar, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets as it would negatively effect Russia's supply of natural gas to Europe. The following year, Assad pursued negotiations for an alternative $10 billion pipeline plan with Iran, across Iraq to Syria, that would also potentially allow Iran to supply gas to Europe from its South Pars field shared with Qatar. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project was signed by in July 2012 - just as Syria's civil war was spreading to Damascus and Aleppo.

These factors all came together beautifully 2 years ago when the uprising commenced in Syria. What started as a peaceful national movement demanding political change and reform, soon transformed into a trans-national crisis with international actors playing a part in the conflict each for their own interest. It is no longer a question of democratic reform, a chemical weapon abuse against civilians, a matter of human and civil rights: it is purely a mixture of economic interests and international political leadership calculations. It is no secret that the US, and some European allies such as Britain and France, have intended to destablize the country for the very same reasons mentioned above, and an excuse to intervene – the chemical gas red line – militarly is but another step taken towards reshaping the country's political make-up and molding the region's regimes according to the interests of economic and political leaders in the USA, Europe, Russia, China, Iran and the oil-rich gulf. To make matters worse, the slafist appeal to the younger Arab and Muslim generation, Al Qaeda's growth, the Shiite militia's excellent organisation under the tutelage of Iran and the christian-muslim, shiite-sunni division are also playing a role in deepening the crisis, and again, each acting to serve one's proper interests.

Bashar Al Assad has been the scapegoat, so was Sadam Hussein, and both were/are evil men who gave the world an excuse to turn a blind eye to the hypocrites, imperialism and double standards of the international community. The only victim in this power play is the Syrian people...especially when many got to the point where the choice between “the evil of the lesser evil” became a real and only choice.