How Everyone Failed Syria

Three years on, Syria is turned into ashes literally. Syrians scattered in heartbreaking ways incomprehensible by any logic or reasoning. The suffering and pain, totally unnecessary, unwarranted and certainly undeserved, are beyond imagination.

How can we describe the situation in Syria and what logic can we employ to make any sense of the past three years? No words or deeds at this point can alleviate a fraction of what Syrians have gone through and will go through for a long time to come.

Cowardice must be the headline. Everyone is coward except the victims. Start with the cowardice of a regime that prefers to see its nation destroyed and burned to the ground, useless, deserted except for ghosts. A regime that will stop at nothing to remain in power, even if all what is left is power over bodies and body parts. Bashar Assad had the power to reform but he refused to use it because inclusion was never in his plans. Change was never on his agenda. A thriving Syria was never what he aspired for.

The neighbors and the rest of the international community were also cowards. When the time was right to act in support of the suffering Syrians and the struggling opposition, no fingers were lifted. No real action was taken to prevent the bloodbath even when it was clearly occurring. The world numbingly watched Syria descend into its disastrous fate as various monsters fought over its many wounds and broken limbs.

The opposition’s cowardice is in its division and its lack of vision, leadership and direction. The momentum was there, the energy as well; the people took a courageous leap of faith and stood in the face of the tyrant. They quickly discovered that there was no clear plan or serious effort to swiftly contain the situation and rally support in the face of a bloodthirsty regime with equally bloodthirsty friends and allies.

Syria is desperate, calling for nothing more than pity. No one with a heart or with their right mind would say anything that could only make things worse. Now is a time to be silent, what needed to be said was said. There were warnings, there were threats, there were diplomatic efforts, there were tears and there was so much blood and so many bodies than anyone bears to count.

The cowardice today is to exist without feeling remorse or responsibility!