A blind eye to Aleppo

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author: mariam dini | contributor

Credit: IHH Humanitarian Relief


 

Seems like the beginning of the end for the Syrian people

 
Aleppo is at the mercy of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Assad’s soldiers, tanks, and planes seem like the beginning of the end for the Syrian people: a civil war that has been fuelled by idiots on a regional and global level for the past five-and-a-half years. Assad is using great force against civilians in Aleppo with no concern for the number of people he is killing or displacing; he is planning to start his next death project in the province of Idlib, but the question is when? How long will his forces continue to destroy Aleppo? Even after his forces leave Aleppo and Idlib, how long will this civil war continue to be fuelled and raged in what will remain a divided country?

Nonetheless, I think it’s time we evaluate and focus on what the Syrian war taught us: if we have learned anything, it’s that history cannot be avoided entirely. History has its way of repeating itself, and as humans, we’re foolish and never seem to learn from our mistakes. What is going on in Syria now is that there’s a corrupted government, with men hiding behind a religion that forbids their actions, snooping people with agendas looking for gas, and rebels, all who have chosen to create destruction and kill innocent civilians for personal gain. The rest of world is watching it on TV and social media. It’s absurd, I know!

In numbers, the Syrian Civil War has left more than half a million people dead, and 13.5 million displaced, and in need of humanitarian assistance. Today, according to Amnesty International and syrianrefugees.eu, more than 4.8 million refugees are in just the five top host countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. In Turkey, the refugees are at risk of being returned because of all the “terrorist” attacks. In Egypt, many Syrian refugees face daily the fear of being deported back home to Syria, Lebanon, or Turkey. In Jordan and Iraq, Syrian refugees are denied entry at the border. 6.6 million Syrians are displaced internally in Syria. Germany has pledged 43,000 places for refugees, and the remaining 27 European countries have pledged around 51,000 places combined. Canada has welcomed almost 39,000 refugees. Basically, in words, few countries are helping, but the majority are not. Keeping in mind that most of the refugees are children and women who are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Sadly, many people are opposing immigration in North America and most European countries. Again, notice how history has a funny way of repeating itself. It seems like the history of the Jewish refugee crisis of the 1930s didn’t teach many of us how to deal with today’s crisis of the Syrian refugees. Syrian refugees are being denied basic human needs like safety, shelter, and food because they might be part of some conspiracy or they could be “terrorists.” Funny how that sounds very close to what the Jewish refugees who were escaping WWII, and the Holocaust were called. Funny how many countries are going by the principle “better safe than sorry,” and ignoring the cries of the children, mothers and the elderly. Bluntly, what the fuck? It is something I don’t understand and never will. Assad is attacking hospitals and schools with drones, and people are dying every day. People are dying as I write this, people are dying as you read this. We need to learn from our mistakes and stop being foolish! Let’s not repeat history and help save lives.

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