Before nations and individuals continue to dehumanize innocent Syrian refugees, they need to know more about the people. The world community need to know that two of the Syrian’s cities, Damascus, and Aleppo, are believed to be the two of the oldest permanently settled cities in the world. “Syria’s history dates back to 9,000 years before the Christian era.”
Individuals and groups, especially Christians, need to know that Syria was once called the “Holy Land.” In fact, historical records indicate that Jesus Christ once walked the lands of Syria. Consequently, Syria is extremely significance in both Biblical History and Ancient Civilizations.
Ancient Syria once included what is today known as “Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon.” Syria also played a significant role in the development of world civilization. Syria is often called the Cradle of Civilizations, since many of the greatest human achievements that later spread to encompass the world had their beginnings there. Ancient Syria was a rich, diverse, and tolerant society.
In pre-civil war Syria, its various populations lived in separate “enclaves or in neighborhoods. Each non-Muslim community dressed according to its custom, “spoke its own languages, and lived according to its unique cultural pattern; it appointed or elected its own officials, who divided the taxes it owed to the empire, ran its schools, and provided such health facilities and social welfare as it thought proper or could afford”.
As it is today, foreign invaders played a vital role in the destabilization of Syria. In fairly recent history, the French controlled Damascus from 1920 through 1946. The French rule up routed Syrian’s civil society. Under French rule, Damascus had regime-changed in 1920, in 1925, 1926, and 1945. Although the French army left Damascus in 1946; now, in 2015, France and partners are bombarding Syria again. In fact, western nations have pitted Muslim nations, religious sects, and ethnic groups against each other for generations.
Before the war, Syria’s economy was based on agriculture, oil, industry and services. Prior Preceding the beginning of the senseless, heavy fighting in Syrian, its “oil fields produced about 330,000 barrels per day, and the Syrians people consumed approximately 260,000 barrels per day for their own use”. Syria’s total population grew from roughly 3 million in 1946, to a total population of 24 million before the present civil war.
Syria was self-sufficient and took care of its own people’s energy needs. Syria is home to six World Heritage sites; however, during the four years of the Syria war, it’s “ancient cities, castles, ruins and archeological treasures are now among the casualties of war in Syria. A heritage that spans over 5,000 years is more or less being buried underneath the rubble”. Many of the destroyed sites date back to the “(1st to 7th centuries) to the late Ottoman period (19th century)”.
There are those who want the world to believe that the Syrian war is the result of the so-called “Arab Spring”; however, it was really the result of foreign intervention, regional meddling and a desire for regime change. The systematic chaotic disintegration of Muslim and Arab countries have created a precedent and model for continued wars in Africa and the Middle East. The vicious WAR in Syria has caused sever destruction of this once beautiful historical country.
The Syrian people, through not fault of their own, has been scattered all over the world. Three million Men, women, children, the elderly, and disabled have become refugees abroad and 6.5 million more internally displaced in the country. Highly educated, industrial and proud Syrians are running from a violent displacement with nowhere to go.
The Syrians people have been to hell and back and now back in hell again! Foreign powers created the atmosphere for war by utilizing the evil strategy of “divide and conquer”. This practice is very similar to the concepts used in the “Willie Lynch Letter” during enslavement of African people in America. Willie Lynch, a slave owner, preached chaotic fragmentation of enslaved people in America. This is exactly what is happening in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Somalia, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East.
The Syrian nation and its people, like those nations mentioned above, have been sucked into another geopolitical cesspool of foreign interventionism and domestic greed. There will be no winners nor stability as long as brothers continue to kill brothers. When foreign invaders control the global narratives, the world will continue to see military escalations in countries of color. If nothing change, we will continue to see perpetual destruction of infrastructures; perpetual dispossessed people; and perpetual genocide the world over.
The majority of people around the world LOVE PEACE; however, just to have a chance at peace, the world powers must not be allowed to sanitize and falsify war. Dead people are not colloidal damage; they are dead people. A bombing raids are not sorties; they are bombing raids the indiscriminately kill the innocent.
The single most important question we must ask ourselves; who are those that are benefiting from endless wars and the polarization of the world? When we answer that question, we will take the first step toward PEACE. World peace will come when we hold world leaders accountable. We must demand that they promote integrity, morality, and respect for global humanity.