A Brutally Honest Review of the Inevitable End to Civil War in Syria

Today, for my final blog post for class rather than review, music, movies or other entertainment medium, I thought that I would offer my thoughts about the inevitable end to the civil war in Syria. Over the past five years I, along with millions of other people have watched as the citizens of Syria took up arms against the regime of Bashar al- Assad. The Assad’s Baathist government has had power in Syria for over forty years, and has taken great pains to keep it. Any and all resistance or other challenges to Baathist power have been brutally quelled.

So, it was quite unsurprising that not long after the escalation of hostilities in the most recent and brutal conflict, that there was talk of chemical weapons being deployed against the rebels. In the weeks that followed, just about every major news agency was broadcasting images of the grotesque slaughter; the terrified faces of displaced civilians running for cover, while government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on crowded streets-all the horrors of war simulcast in stunning 1080p.

I for one am sick of watching. But as to whether or not I can in good conscience show even the slightest bit of elation, at hearing that it might soon be over remains to be seen. Unlike many of the people I know, (who like me have followed news of the war closely), I have not been able to pick a side. Although I am far from a Baathist supporter, the Free Syrian Army, and their rebel coalition haven’t exactly “blown my skirt up” either,  to be frank,  in my opinion they don’t seem to be the freedom fighters they’re purported  to be. While the Assad government was dropping bombs and launching chemical weapons, the FSA were wiping out entire villages of Christians, burning churches, and taking video  footage of its soldiers mutilating the corpses  of vanquished enemies and ingesting their organs.

All this to say, now that the Syrian Civil war is drawing to a close I feel like I should be happy that five years of war are almost at an end, but I don’t know if I can be. On one hand, the FSA might not have been the ideal winner, but I kind of want to believe that they’d certainly have to be the better choice than Assad’s Baathists. On the other hand, as a younger man in 2003 I saw first hand the destructive destabilization that occurs when Baathist regimes are toppled. The results were 10 years of Iraqi insurgency, followed by the formation and rise to power of ISIS, the alleged Islamic Caliphate. Which brings us smack dab to where we are now… In the words of Raul Duke, “What’s next? What’s the score here?”