Dubbed as “the battle for Aleppo,” the latest chapter of massacres in the Syrian conflict continues, with reports of more civilian deaths in air strikes Friday.
More than five years of bloodletting has killed close to half a million Syrians, according to some estimates while the number of those displaced and rendered refugees in neighboring Middle Eastern countries and Europe runs into millions.
Meanwhile, Bashar al Assad, propped up by his Russian and Iranian backers, continues to rain down death on men, women and children while ISIS – widely believed to be an offshoot of 2003 Iraq invasion – also continues to play havoc with whatever is left of civilization in Iraq and Syria.
Despite the fact that ramifications off the Syrian killing fields are afflicting nations far and wide – in the form of refugee crisis, militancy and terror- the multi-layered conflict with multiple regional and world players backing armed proxies, continues to fester wounds of humanity caught in the crosshairs.
The international indifference and absence of a coordinated strategy to force a political resolution to the war speaks to a lot about the lack of world leadership on addressing the catastrophe.
According to a United Nations envoy, “attacks and counter-attacks over the past days have only compounded the suffering on two million civilians already struggling to cope with power outages and water shortages spotlights again that there is no military solution [there] or anywhere else in Syria.”
Aleppo, the largest city with around 300,000 horrified citizens besieged, is a scene of carnage from indiscriminate bombings. Not even hospitals are spared. With supplies shrinking, death stares captive citizens in the eyes.
“Aleppo is dying but where is the outrage? Where is the outrage in the majority Arab and Muslim states? In Europe, which is being directly impacted by the Syrian tragedy? Where is the outrage in America? Have we become too numbed because of the unbearable stench of death and dying in the Middle East?” wrote Hisham Melhem, a Washington-based Lebanese journalist.
A bustling town until 2011, before Assad used brute force against to quell Arab Spring-inspired peaceful protests five years ago, Aleppo is famous for many historical milestones including being the last stop of the fabled Silk Road.
But new strategic dynamics and involvement of so many disparate international players is keeping world capitals from repeating the role of saviors as was the case in the face of Bosnian genocide in the mid-1990s, when the United States intervened to stave off total annihilation of the Muslim population.
“Civilians on both sides of the conflict – on both sides of Aleppo – are in danger of being surrounded and affected by shortages and bombings,” UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said in Geneva.
Mistura’s Special Advisor, Jan Egeland says: “The stakes cannot be higher in the coming days, because, really, millions of Syrian civilians are now in a seeming free fall, from Aleppo to Eastern Ghouta, from Fua and Kefraya to Zabadani and Madaya, and to the whole people of Darayya, who are still waiting the second half of the first convoy that they promised them.”
Meanwhile, according to another report soaring temperatures and dwindling medical supplies are deepening the woes of some two million people trapped by fighting in and around Aleppo.
With terrified people facing starvation, death stalking from all around, reports of chemical weapons use, maiming of children in airstrike on hospitals, have turned Aleppo into one of the bloodiest horror chambers of modern times. The cost for demanding democracy has turned out to be too heavy for Syrians. Will there be an end to the cost of world silence in the age of the mass and social media?
