A War That has Killed Millions but Seems to be Forgotten

The Syrian War ages into its fifth year yet it barely makes the headlines of some of the major news broadcasting companies today. A war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions to points around the world, the Syrian conflict is the source of many of the problems in today’s world, and is one of the major talking points in current events and politics. Because of the increasing number of articles that simply mention the growing death toll and the fact that no major progress has been made, it is often hard to remember when and why the Syrian conflict even began.

The Syrian War began in 2011 during the so-called Arab Spring—a time when peaceful revolutions were occurring throughout Northern Africa that turned many countries into democracies. The United States was the main perpetrator that tried to force democracy on the countries that, although they may have had dictators, were some of the most progressive nations in Africa and maybe the entire world. Despite the economic sanctions placed on Syria by the West prior to the war, Syria had a bustling economy and diversity (including race, religion, and other forms of diversity in people) was more common than people may realize. This was completely reversed when the civilians believed that they were being unfairly treated by the government and that democracy would be a better fit. President Assad refused to step down and was surrounded by protests day after day. The soldiers who were responsible for keeping everything under control, fired at the civilians, killing and injuring a number of people. This was how the war first began, and since then, many other parties have joined the war because they see Syria as a vulnerable land that they can take for themselves.

In Libya, prior to the war that demolished their economy, the dictator-led government provided free education for all citizens. Iraq was much safer and much wealthier before American intervention, and it declined almost at once when George Bush started the war in the early 200os. They were improving in a number of ways before the western countries, specifically the United States, waged war and practically destroyed the country on the basis of the government using nuclear weapons. No nuclear weapons were ever found, though, and coincidentally, the war was waged in the country at the same time that oil fields were discovered in Iraq.

Since the Syrian Civil War began, there have been more than 115,000 civilian casualties, and five percent of all deaths in Syria are caused by terrorist attacks. Due to the high number of casualties, millions of people have fled Syria and in 2014, Syria had one of the the highest population declines in the world. The Security Council has been dealing with this situation, but due to the veto power that the United States and the Russian Federation have, progress has stagnated. The Russian Federation supports Assad, the current leader of the Syrian government, because Syria is one of their major allies. The U.S., on the other hand, has supplied weapons to the government’s opposition.

The Syrian conflict is extremely complex and features a number of different parties: the Kurds, the Syrian government, the common opposition (who started the peaceful protest which started the war), and ISIL. The mass flight of civilians has caused the largest refugee crisis since WWII, and has resulted in many economic problems around the world. So far, there seems to be no end to the horrors of ISIL, which is one of the largest terrorist organizations today. No clear solution has been found yet but hopefully, (though perhaps improbably) the war that has continued for over five years now will come to an end soon.