My experiences in life and close encounters with death have taught me one extremely important lesson – politics, money and power don’t know any faith, humanity or values. All that matters in the end are geographical interests, control and money. People are disposable commodities – pawns in a dirty game where loyalties are suspect and human life is not sacred. Bashar al Assad is a leech of the highest order and the war that he has waged against his own people has only consolidated his hold on power. Despite a huge fuss the world powers supposedly committed to end the crisis, Bashar is not only well-entrenched in Damascus but continues to progressively commit atrocities enough to have crippling effect on many generations to come. In the past years, there are kids who’ve grown up knowing nothing but warfare. During the same time, Bashar has brutally crushed his opposition to the ground. He has used chemical weapons. Woeful images of people coming out of Aleppo, the country’s largest city and once a centre of business, recently after a chlorine attack paint a horrendous picture of what’s going on in Syria. While there’s been incessant political humdrum and special ops forces being sent from the US side, it seems that the world has terribly failed to handle the Syrian crisis. The involvement of ISIS into the mix appears to have given Bashar a new lease of life and the ability to suck the blood of his countrymen. Renewed but isolated international efforts to stop the war have proven to be an exercise in futility. US, UK and Russia’s hobnobbing has only caused death and destruction and displaced millions with no home or shelter. Syria is an apocalyptic hell, a horror show that the Syrian nation, scions of an ancient civilization, has had to endure. This is where Omran Daqneesh and thousands like him have been sacrificed to safeguard Bashar’s rule. This is where cities like Aleppo, shamefully and grievously unknown to some, have been reduced to rubble. This is where citizens continuously beg for mercy, either from Syrian government forces or from the ISIS vultures. This is where physicians and medical practitioners have appealed to world conscience time and again. Despite all that, a coordinated, concerted effort is missing in action. And, despite all that, those opposed to Bashar are still willing to allow him six months to negotiate his way out of power. This is after the butcher of Damascus dumped countless barrels of chlorine gas just the other day. Is the world conveniently willing to forgive him and move on? Sometimes I wonder what’s worse – not knowing about the carnage in Syria or knowing a whole lot about it but not acting on it. There are also times when I wonder about the intellectual integrity of those who talk about a Muslim ban in without realising the fact that Muslims happen to be their own worst enemies. The tragedy is that no one has the time to step back and think deep. Probably at this point, as far as Syria is concerned, it doesn’t even matter.
