Following four and a half years of armed conflict, Syria currently has an estimated death toll of 450,000. 50,000 of those deaths belong to children. Beginning with anti-government protests in 2011 and escalating into a brutal civil war, this conflict has involved more than just the Syrian government, rebels, and civilians. It is now affecting international politics at a very large scale, and Obama’s administration is confronting head on what the seriousness of being a global hegemon in the face of international crises entails.
In March 2011, pro-democracy protests began to occur in the city of Daraa, Damascus, and Aleppo after teenagers who painted anti-government slogans on a school were arrested, tortured, and killed. Moreover, the Syrian people were tired of the brutal rule of the Assad family, and desired greater civil liberties and freedoms. Government security forces fired at the protesters in Daraa, killing four civilians. According to BBC World News, “the unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad’s resignation.” As the government used brutal force to attempt to stop the opposition, demonstrators became more hardened in their beliefs. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were taking to the streets nationwide by July of that year. These people, known as the rebels, began to take up and administer fire arms, not only to defend themselves, but to also remove government security forces from their local populations.
Although this fight started as a reproduction of the Arab Spring, it turned into a full on proxy war.
According to the New Arab, in August of 2011, President Barack Obama called upon President Assad to resign from his presidency and for the Syrian government to freeze all of its assets.
As violence continued to escalate, Syria fell into a state of civil war. Rebel groups began forming to fight off government forces for control of towns, major cities, and the country side. Damascus, the capital of Syria, and Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, began to feel the tumultuous effects of civil war conflict by 2012.
By August of 2012, President Obama stated that if the Syrian government or any other allied forces (including Russia) used chemical weapons then he would reconsider using military forces. He called this the “red line,” however, during his presidency Obama largely wrestled with the idea of using military firepower throughout the civil war in Syria. Facing an extreme moral dilemma, Obama was not sure about whether or not the U.S. should use military firepower due to Syria’s alliance with Russia, and the uncertainty of how effective military force would be against Assad’s regime.
Although by November of 2012, the Syrian National Coalition was created to bring together the main opposition forces, the group was made with a vulnerable foundation due to infighting. According to BBC World News, by December, the “U.S., Britain, France, Turkey, and Gulf states formally recognized opposition National Coalition as [the] “legitimate representative” of [the] Syrian people.”
The New Arab states that by March of 2013, “the number of un-registered Syrian refugees tops 1 million, half of them children.” Only a few months later, the Syrian army took back the key border town Qusayr, and by August, accusations arose that the regime killed over 1,400 people using chemical warfare.
Although international pressure pushed the Syrian government to destroy its chemical weaponry in October of 2013, things began to fall apart for the Syrian National Coalition. Many rebel groups decided to break off and form a new alliance intended to eventually create a state governed by Islamic law, rather than by civil, democratic norms.
By 2014, new dimensions came into play in this civil war such as resurrected Sunni and Shia tensions, and even more conflict derived from the rise of the Jihadist group the Islamic State. Infighting began pitting rebels against each other due to various beliefs and ideas about how the government should be run, and the Islamic state continued to grow, becoming a new detrimental issue in the chaos of Syrian civil war. At this point, mediating in the UN-Arab league ended without breakthrough, and the rebels withdrew from Homs, acting as a significant symbolic victory for the Syrian government. By May of 2014, already two UN-Arab League envoys had resigned, and the presidential election in Syria proved the corruption of the government with Assad winning by 88.7% according to the New Arab.
With the entry of ISIS into the playing field, the international community had a bigger problem on their hands. By September of 2014, the U.S. began ordering airstrikes on ISIS group targets, and by early 2016 much of ISIS’s power was seemingly diminished; however, it does not seem like the fighting between the rebel groups and the government will end any time soon.
To this day, much of Aleppo is in complete ruin and is overrun by the fighting of military forces and rebel groups. Those who attempt to seek shelter in Aleppo do not find safety for very long considering the constant bombings and air strikes that have been hailing over the region. Furthermore, attempts to supply humanitarian aid in the region by the international community have been halted due to concern of looting from unsupported rebel groups. Millions of people, including many women and children, are internally displaced.
Whether it was for his hesitance in utilizing military assistance or his usage of airstrikes that caused some civilian casualties, President Obama suffered majorly from his indecision, and even titled the situation something that “haunts” him. Even though the masses put him under fire for his inconsistency and lack of strength of U.S. intervention, it is important to remember that issues like these are enormous moral dilemmas that require a lot of insight and thought. Decisions at this level always have positives and negatives, no matter what choice is made. During an interview with presidential historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, President Obama stated, “I would say of all the things that have happened during the course of my presidency, the knowledge that you have hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed, millions who have been displaced, (makes me) ask myself what might I have done differently along the course of the last five, six years.”
At the end of the day, it is important to remember that millions of Syrian people are suffering. Their once stable and livable environments have now turned into war zones and airstrike targets. Learning about the series of events that have occurred in Syria is important for many practical reasons, such as its affects on the economy, oil prices, the surrounding geography, etc. However, the fact of the matter is that internal displacement is risking the lives of millions of people. We should not live in a bubble where we fall prey to the term, “ignorance is bliss.” In terms of protecting basic human rights, increasing awareness by informing the masses could help mobilize citizens to rally for those abroad, and right now, Syria needs this support more than ever.
