Syria is smashed, its cities in rubble, half its population displaced, and to bring this about Assad has had to mortgage his country’s independence to Russia and Iran. Assad has failed his country and people, and should be held accountable for this and his myriad crimes. Merely pointing the finger at western failures in Syria misses the full picture. Moreover, the most damaging external interventions in Syria in terms of destruction and killing were non-western, those of Russia, Iran, Turkey and Islamic State. And if the west charges gung-ho into yet another major Middle Eastern conflict the unforeseen consequences may be even greater and more grotesque than those of the 2003 invasion.

Source: The Guardian April 09, 2018 17:15 UTC