by Dr. Juergen Todenhoefer
Syria Conflict : How the democratic protests became a merciless war in which everyone fights against each other
When the history of the Syrian War will be re-written it will not have much in common with today’s media coverage.

The Syrian drama ran in three acts.:

The first act was played in the spring of 2011. Young Syrians demonstrated against the government every month. That was legitimate. I participated in demonstrations in Homs. The response of the Syrian security forces was disproportionate and counterproductive.

In the second act, the geo-strategic enemies of the Assad regime pushed forward: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the USA. They wanted to stop Bashar al-Assad for a long time. Because he was an ally of the Shiite Iran. He had become too strong for them through the foolish war of George W. Bush against Sunni Iraq. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Shiite majority of the population of Iraq had taken over the power and led their country to the side of Iran. Thus, Iraq was a strategic counterbalance to Iran. Tehran was now able to rely on a “Shiite crescent,” which extended across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon.

Kidnapped Revolution

Syria was to be broken out of this arch. But the Gulf States and the US quickly realized that Assad could not be overthrown with demonstrations. His systematic support for the Alawite, Shiite and Christian minorities, as well as in parts of the Sunni middle class and upper class, the prosperous traders of the big cities, was too strong.

The Gulf States, the USA, Turkey, and a number of Western states began to equip domestic and foreign rebels with weapons and money from autumn 2011, under American leadership. In Central America, this strategy of lifting unpleasant governments out of the saddle with the help of paid “rebels”, often worked. Why not in Syria?

A peaceful democratic revolution was now settled. Kidnapped. Supporters of democracy no longer played a role. Instead, armed rebels from Syria and around the world fought against the regime’s military apparatus and its allied foreign allies. The peaceful Syrian revolution turned into  a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The US – and at the beginning still relatively reserved Russia – steered the battles from the third row. The increasingly heavily armed rebels fought mainly for a radical Islamic state. I’ve met countless of them. In Damascus, Daraa, Homs, Hama and last week back in Aleppo. When I spoke of democracy, they smiled mildly.

Despite the incalculable change from legitimate democratic protests to a “proxy war” of two Middle East leaders, most Western politicians and media in the world continued to focus on the long-overdue tale of fighting noble rebels for democracy and freedom. Even the fact that the rebels were often sponsored by Saudi Arabia, one of the darkest dictatorships in the region, could not move them to concede that in the meantime a completely different piece was being played.

In the third act the rear men of the deputy war entered the stage. While the US and Saudi Arabia have always supported extremist rebels and even al-Qaeda terrorists in their struggle against Assad, Russia, Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, and even Afghan Shiite militias, fought openly at the side of the regime. Meanwhile, 50 per cent of the rebels fighting in Syria were foreigners. None of them fought for democracy.

Peasants on the chessboard

Parallel to the struggle for supremacy in the Middle East, the US and its allies as well as Russia were also bombed by the IS, which had used the Syrian Iraqi chaos to build its own state. The situation turned out to be increasingly unclear. Only the myth of the selfless freedom fighters seemed indestructible.

The Syrian people are in despair about this war against all, involving hundreds of rebel organizations and fighters from over 80 nations. Also because he demoted them to marionettes, to peasants on the chessboard of the mighty. The suffering I have seen in Syria in the destroyed cities, on the battlefields and in the hospitals is indescribable. All parties involved commit war crimes. There are no decent wars.

All are responsible for this development: government and rebels. The main responsibility for this conflict is borne by the back men who, without any personal risk, to themselves.

Dr. Juergen Todenhoefer      (translated from German)

SOURCE:    https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/eine-vermeidbare-tragoedie