Deeply scarred Syria

In the battle for Aleppo, it is obvious that Moscow and Damascus wanted to retake the city no matter the price in human lives.

With the world merely watching the carnage and widespread destruction in Aleppo, Russia and the Syrian regime literally had carte blanche to finish the job, in this city now, and in the entire country later.

The Russian leadership said its warplanes and rockets were targeting only terrorists. That has been the song Damascus has been singing all along as well.

Moscow stopped the aerial bombing of Aleppo for more than a month now, due to the international outcry in Europe, particularly in Germany, where the public opinion counts most for Moscow, but left the Syrian warplanes to finish the job on its behalf as Damascus has become immune to international criticism and would not care less.

If indeed Russian and Syrian war planes had been targeting only terrorists, no one would have quarrelled with Moscow or Damascus, but there is compelling evidence that the Russian and Syrian bombs were killing not just terrorists, but, for the most part, innocent civilians, by the thousands.

The some half-a-million Syrian people who were killed so far by indiscriminate Russian and Syrian bombings were not all terrorists.

True, in every war civilians get caught in the middle and get killed or wounded. But when nearly 90 per cent of the casualties of Russian and Syrian bombs are made up of innocent civilians, there is legitimate cause to question the real geopolitical agenda of Moscow and Damascus, and also Tehran, in their war in Syria.

With the US remaining on the sidelines and becoming increasingly irrelevant in the war in Syria, no wonder Damascus and Moscow are going ahead full speed with their designs in Syria.

President Barack Obama preferred a hands-off policy on Syria, and by doing so, he left the door wide open for Moscow to pursue its agenda in this Arab country, and even in the region.

The fact that the opposition groups in Syria have also caused suffering to the Syrian people does not diminish Moscow’s and Damascus’ culpability. State actors are held more strictly accountable than non-state actors.

No matter who wins or loses the war, at the end of the day it is the people of Syria who lost.

The scars of the Syrian war will last for a long time, but the people will find redress one day.