I heard someone say recently something along the lines of ‘if you think you know what’s going on in Syria, you don’t understand it.’ The whole thing is a mess and a report following a meeting of the ‘Friends of Syria’ (a group that doesn’t include the friends of the current Syrian government) demonstrates the mess clearly as do statements from the President of France.

The ravages of war

The United States recently lifted its own embargo on supplying military support to rebel groups in Syria (the opposition) in order to bolster their fight against the government of Bashar al-Assad. They have cited the use of chemical weapons as their reason for doing so. Following that the rebels have reported receiving new weapon supplies.

Western governments are now differentiating between ‘rebels’ and ‘extremists’ as the world wakes up to the fact that organisations like Al Qaeda and other ‘extremists’ are and always have been active in the opposition movement to topple the government. That’s part of the complexity. You see, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah (in Lebanon) are enemies of Al Qaeda so not only are they trying to stop a Western take-down of the Assad government, they’re also trying to stop Al Qaeda from gaining a foothold in a country that borders them. Iran has always been one of the strongest forces against Al Qaeda, which is active alongside Western backed groups in Syria.

Hopefully you’re starting to grasp the mess. The West and its Middle Eastern allies are backing forces that are working for the same thing as Al Qaeda in Syria and up until recent moves to differentiate between these groups they were all branded and labelled as opposition rebels.

With the escalation in the supply of weapons to rebel groups there is no real assurance that these weapons won’t strengthen those groups as the line between ‘rebels’ and extremists is very blurred. You’ll have to forgive me when I express my skepticism towards the words of the leader of the main Western backed group when he ‘gave his word that weapons would go to the right people.’

So as Iran, Hezbollah and Russia continue to arm the Assad government to push against the Western backed groups and Al Qaeda (a foreign intervention that the ‘Friends of Syria’ say “threatens the unity of Syria and broadens the conflict” across the region – while not mentioning that they are doing the same on the other side) so the West and its Middle Eastern allies are now increasing their supply of weapons to the mix of opposition groups. It is a proxy war and the weapons supply has now begun a dramatic increase.

The one thing that can be easily understood about this shift is that the increased supply of weapons creates further instability and danger for the civilians still caught in the conflict. This is the under reported catastrophe and it is the biggest humanitarian disaster in the world right now. 1.6 Million adults and children have fled Syria as the conflict has raged and increased. This is projected to increased to 5 million by the end of this year. Millions more are internally displaced. The death toll is estimated at 93,000 with 6,500 of those being children. Civilians have been massacred by both sides if that side has suspected those civilians of supporting the other side. People of all religious persuasions have been killed and places of worship destroyed. This is the largest humanitarian disaster since the end of the Cold War. It is more destructive than the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

With the influx of refugees, bordering countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have had to cope with little resource to be able to provide those refugees with their basic needs and the likes of Lebanon are now also having to deal with the fighting spilling over into their own villages, towns and cities.

Those refugees are now in foreign countries. They’ve lost their homes and belongings, many having fled with nothing. Far too many have lost loved ones. Humanitarian response agencies are struggling to cope and the increase of weapons simply exacerbates the problems. Governments like that of New Zealand choose not to fund humanitarian issues caused by conflict and in the meantime people struggle to survive.

Conflict is preventable simply because it is human, but when it happens it’s innocent people that suffer the most, those innocent people, numbering in the millions in this case, need people around the world to put up their hand to say we’ll help. Let’s do so. Let’s heap scorn on the dogs of war and the ravages that flow from it, while also reaching a hand to those who suffer because of it.