Syria War

1. The conflict’s participants of the Syrian war (alliances, sides, etc.). What are the main interests of the conflicting parties? What does each side want? Do all the people belonging to the same group want the same thing?

The Syrian is probably one of the worst war that the world has ever seen. When the war began in early 2011, there was no indication that it would later become a full blown war with over half a million people killed (Carpenter, 2013). It was 6^th March 2011 when a young by aged 14 led a group of other youngsters to spray their school walls with anti-Assad graffiti. When they were arrested, they went through torture and this provoked their parents to go to the streets to protest and in return, the government fired back by killing some of the unarmed Protestants (Carpenter, 2013). The main reason that led to the Syrian war is the fact that the people protested against Assad Regime. On the other hand, the government was not ready to give in to the war because they believed that the protested were fuelled by the West as well as the Arab-spring-type uprising that were taking place in other Arab regions like Libya, Egypt, and such (Carpenter, 2013). When the protests began, no one anticipated for the deadly implications that we see today as Syrian was a stable before. However, the members of the Syrian Amy defected and formed the National Coalition and began to fight against President al-Asaad. The Kurds took advantage of the opportunity and armed themselves in order to defect from Syria as this is what they always wanted (Carpenter, 2013). In addition the interference by other foreign groups that backed Assad made the war even bigger. On the other hand, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar funded the coalition and it was not long before the US became involved directly and fought on Al-said side. The ISIS joined in when they saw that the west had interfered and wanted to set up an Islamic state in Syria. Russia then was involved in attacked the ISIS directly through the approval of the government. In November 2015, Turkey attacked Russia by bombing their diplomatic plane because of the confrontation they both had and NATO. As a result, Russia had to increase more troops in the East. Other international involvement was China through using veto power in the UN’s Security Council. In the following months since the first streets protest, Syria has been a battle ground for several international countries. Some countries have worked directly with Assad while others have funded the militia and very group has it vested political interest (Oye, 1992). The reason as to why the war has gone for too long is because of the involvement of other countries as well.

2.  Traditional and Nontraditional Aspects of War: How is the conflict fought (i.e. tactics, style, and methods of combat)? What rules of war do you notice; which ones are broken and why? Which aspects of the war fit the traditional vs. non-traditional image?

The war was fought by both civil and foreign involvement. An in depth look into the Syrian war reveals it cold nature. As opposed to other wars like the southern Sudan war where the main issue is the division of resources, the Syrian war is complex because it involves a number of interests form different groups, both national and international and international (Tse, Tung & Griffith, 2005). In fact, that is the reason as to why is hard to intervene in the Syrian war because the outsiders have dabbled the region. The reason for the above premise is because the timing of the conflict is questionable. It came at a time when Syria-Iraq’s gas pipeline was supposed to be a major economic boost for Syria (Carpenter, 2013). On the other hand, the European Union was trying to ensure that the refugee crisis had come to a stop but in the real sense, wanted to make sure that the gas gets into people’s home. It was a means of providing revenue for the interested groups. The methods used for the war were more gruesome, for instance when the US attacked with gas bomb causing panic all over the world (Carpenter, 2013). It was a one-on-one attack on the civilians as militias fought in the streets and caused the death of so many innocent civilians caught in the ceasefire. There were no rules laid for the war because the citizens were tired of Assad’s regime and there were attempts to have talks. The government was driven to stop the war while citizens were determined to go on until their demands were met. Otherwise, the war raged on, and included any group that had interest in Russian and other related issues. The revolution was used a way to reshape Syria’s ideology as well as geopolitics (Art, Jervis & Jervis, 2009). According to the genogram theory, it places Iran, Russian, on one side while USA, CANADA and the UN on the other. The main aim of the involvement of all these countries was to move Syria to the right because of its strategic position (Carpenter, 2013).

3. Ideology and Identity: What roles do various ideologies (i.e. world-views) play in the war? What roles do identity factors (e.g. culture, ethnicity, religion) play in the war? Are these issues the actual causes of the conflict or do they play a different role?

In terms of ideology and identity, the world view plays a major role in the Syrian war because of the following factors, culture, ethnicity, and religion (Oye, 1992). The way the media portrays the Syrian war is that a young boy with his friends drew some provocative slogans against President Assad on their school wall (Carpenter, 2013). Then, thereafter, it led to one big revolution that has made Syria never the same again. However, an in depth look into the whole process sows a different picture: where there are other factors in play that made the war erupt. Take, for example, The Kurds for a long time wanted to separate from Russia long before the revolution began and this caused a lot of tension (Carpenter, 2013). As such, when the revolution began, provided a loophole for the fighting and this led to major war with other countries and international bodies involved. The Arab uprising in other countries in the Middle East also inspired the Syrian war making it also a religious issue. The involvement of the ISIS in the war shows how they wanted to create a Muslim territory out of the Russian conflict (Carpenter, 2013). Therefore, apart from it being an ethnic war, it paved the way for the religious interests that we see today (Art, Jervis & Jervis, 2009). The present issues of the war today are opportunities because for the civilians, it was just an expression of their giants the Assad’s regime at the time. However, other nations that got involved had their reasons that made the war continue to a devastating point where more than half a million people lost their lives, infrastructure destroyed, political tension and the worst refugee crisis in war history.

4. The role of civilians and media. How do the civilians participate in the war? Are they the targets, are they the forces that carry out the war, or both? Why are the civilians targeted? Are public opinion and media factor in the war?

As stated earlier, the war began when one young boy decided to spray graffiti with anti-Assad slogans on their school walls (Carpenter, 2013). According to the history of war, most civilians usually have their part to play in fueling a war. Take for instance, if the people would have agreed to abide by Assad’s regime, no one would have been hurt by a war (Carpenter, 2013). The only problem would be that the citizens would have to abide by a dictator regime (Oye, 1992). However, the citizens were not ready to abide and took to the streets in retaliation provoking the government into an attack that led to the loop hole where other nations and groups such as ISIS and the UN interfered.  In depth, the civilians were not the target of the war but the government because the main decisions come from the leaders and government (Oye, 1992). As such, the citizens find themselves in the middle of a conflict that they cannot control (Art, Jervis & Jervis, 2009). In wars, the civilians are targets because they act as props for the war and their situation can make the government abide. In this case, the Syrian median also helped to fuel the war by reporting provocative messages and triggering the citizens into war and protests. The government acted out of defense of its honor against the people who were becoming a liability towards Assad’s regime. In other words, the government was using force to contain the civilians in the streets and show them that he was still in control

In conclusion, a look into the Syrian war shows that the cause of the revolution has many political vested interest. The war was more of corruption as well as sect divisions as opposed t other regular wars that the world experiences. As discussed above, The Syrian situation is as a result of historical events that piled up and sparked a revolution. Other international interest took advantage of the political instability and invested in the war. The war was due to internal violence that did not require the intervention of other countries and international bodies but other political influences put pressure on the war by providing aid and taking sides. The ISIS and UN showed their interest in Syria openly and further aggravated the situation (Carpenter, 2013). As such, it is safe to state that the war was a product of distrust, chaps, violence, and also as a result of historical imperfections in the regions. In short, the war began as Syrians demanded for a regime change, the government refused to give in and responded heavily by killing the unarmed protestors. Form this point, the conflict escalated from street fire to involving ethnical, economical and religious conflicts in the region. The war was avoidable if they were ethical interventions but in this case, some international politics made it worse.

References

Art, R. J., Jervis, R., & Jervis, R. (2009). International politics: enduring concepts and 

contemporary issues. Pearson/Longman.

Carpenter, T. G. (2013). Tangled web: The Syrian civil war and its implications. Mediterranean 

Quarterly, 24(1), 1-11.

Oye, K. A. (1992). The conditions for cooperation in world politics. Art and Jervis.

Tse-Tung, M., & Griffith, S. B. (2005). On guerrilla warfare. Courier Corporation.