The terrible war in Syria has bought arguably more misery than most other conflicts of either this or the last century, barring only a few even more terrible wars such as the second world war and the Vietnam conflict.
However, like the great wars that took place early on in the first few decades of the 20th century. Syria too has managed to suck in virtually all of the world’s great powers in a bizarre dance of death with each side supporting its own version of who should and should not be supported.
The Russians are pitted against all armed opposition to the Assad regime. A stance that is supported by both the Lebanese guerilla outfit ‘Hezbollah” and the Iranian government that backs it. The Turks are in there purely to protect their interests and attack the Kurds who they accuse of fanning the flame of separatism amongst their own Kurdish population. The British and the French covertly help the armed opposition to the Assad regime and overly help fight the terrible Death Cult ISIL (Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant). Meanwhile the Al-Qaida led Salafist outfits are supported by the Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Qatar. However, Qatar supports the Islamic brotherhood whose Islamist terror groups are different from the equally radical and violent terror group that Saudi Arabia and the other autocratic monarchies of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) support.
This has led to Saudi and her allies ganging up against Qatar that has used her almost Croesus like wealth to ward them off.
As for the Kurds, they are more interested in carving out their own homeland in Syria by cleansing their lands of all people who are not interested in tier grand ‘Rojava’ project (As they call their proto state). Something that the President Erdogan of (America’s key NATO ally) Turkey has vowed to never allow to happen and to prevent it he sent the Turkish Army into Syria. Where their artillery has been repeatedly crashing into the YPG (the Kurdish armed forces) positions and villages.
However, he is also an avowed enemy of the Assadist regime who are not exactly on good terms with the very Kurds he is fighting.
Nevertheless, the Americans have been plying the YPG that America’s NATO ally Turkey sees as an outlawed terror group and has sworn to utterly destroy with heavy weapons while American forces are faced with the onerous task of protecting them from their fellow Turkish allies.
And to make matters even more interesting, China too has jumped into the fray by offering Billions of dollars in aid to the Assadist regime.
(Stay tuned for part II)
