General

In absence of magic wand, humanity needs to think on crises like Syria

NewsGram Desk

As resilient as Russia and France sound the reality is undeniable that they are killing civilians in their revengeful attacks on Syria. "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind," said Mahatma Gandhi which aptly explains where these revengeful attacks are leading us.

Moscow's warplanes carried out an astounding 394 raids in the last three days, killing more than 731 'rebels' across Syria.

French warplanes carried out more than 160 raids earlier on Monday, with 23 people arrested and dozens of weapons seized. A round of airstrikes on the Islamic State's (IS) Syrian stronghold of Raqqa was carried out on Tuesday as well. Authorities reported seven strikes and, at least, three major explosions in the city.

Earlier, French President François Hollande called the Paris attacks an "act of war" and vowed to be "merciless" against those responsible, made it clear that he would no longer be deterred by the border between Iraq and Syria.

However, what is not being reported is the number of civilians dead, wounded, abandoned, orphaned and/or deprived of all those basic amenities, which will allow them to merely survive due to these vengeful assaults.

These countries definitely do need to set these terror outfits straight, but their strategies need to be focussed. These indiscriminate air strikes claiming to be hitting the 'rebels' do claim the lives of civilians and damage their residences rendering them with nothing to cling to.

The blame doesn't squarely lie on Russia and France or any European nation aiding these powers in attacking ISIS (and Syria), but the US is to be blamed equally.

Obama, at the last UN General Assembly meeting, remarked while countering Russian attacks on Iraq and adjoining the Syrian nation, "In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad, who drop barrel bombs to massacre innocent children, because the alternative is surely worse."

This is a logical statement considering that the air bombing by Russia is not creating any less destruction (of life and emotions) as compared to local militants of the state.

Although, the irony of Obama's statement is that the US is not a guiltless spectator in the Syrian situation either.

The US has continuously supplied weapons to rebel opposition groups in Syria, which have landed in the hands al-Nusra, a terror outfit. On the other hand weapons for the Iraqi army have reached the ISIS.

According to a BBC report, "Isis has made use of the weapons it seized from the Iraqi army in its successful takeover of large swathes of the country, including an estimated 1,500 Humvees, some armed with TOW missiles, howitzers, and precision-guided weaponry."

It's also interesting that the US just happens to be the largest arms supplier nation in the world.

Pope Francis, in his recent visit to the US, addressed the Congress saying, one of the prime reasons of weapons being sold in the world is for industrial gain, to attain more money "…money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood".

This tossing of blames will continue to stay with us until we die or a mystical fairy descends on Earth to wave her magical wand and cure the world of its maniac fascination with violence making the world a better place.

What we all are failing to see is the extraordinary destruction these reckless assails and counter attacks are causing to the innocent citizens in these regions. Syria is already under severe devastation by ISIS and is now even under the violence gambit of these powerful nations.

For a local citizen in Syria or Iraq, I wonder, what is the difference between ISIS, Al Qaeda and Russia, France or the US?

For them, they are all the same; they all have (and yet continue to) devastated their lives every single day.

Human rights are for all humans and not just of the French, Russian or Americans. These rights apply to Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and Sudanese as well. However, a bad excuse is given that, at times, the segregation of rebels and civilians is impossible and collateral damages happen.

So it's fair by all means that you turn into a larger, organised terror group against the innocent civilians of a country that has become the core hate target of the world.

The development of a nation should not be measured by its arms supply but by its ability to accept, include and nurture the ravages that the humanity has gone through.

The ease of torturing others has become so rampant in this global age that massacres seem to be just another resentful attack. But in the bargain we are overlooking its repercussions on the innocent just because someone has better set of words to justify it.

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