Aleppo Burned And The World Watched

As the Syrian conflict continued to unfold over the last five and a half years, Iran, Hezbollah, Assad and their supporters have used U.S. imperialism and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict to exploit and exacerbate an already horrific conflict. As many continued to suffer under the barrel bombs, shelling, and on-going clashes between regime forces and various rebel groups, one can only wonder how some audaciously stand on the side of the tyrannical Syrian regime and its allies. Although some rebel groups have not exemplified the best of moral codes and ethics at times, one cannot dismiss the atrocities of the Syrian Arab Army, Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the multitude of Shiite militias spilling over form Iraq. It seems incomprehensible when leftists and other adherents of varying ideologies refer back to aggressive United States foreign policy towards the Middle East and Zionist Israel to legitimize the establishment and continuity of the current Syrian regime.

Many of the arguments insisting the legitimacy of Assad are not stemming from apolitical Salafi Sunnis, who often preach obedience to the ruler as commanded by Prophet Muhammad within the Islamic tradition in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, as claimed by some. On the contrary, they are coming from individuals who are concerned with national Syrian unity, regional stability of the Levant, and most notably the Israeli occupation in hopes that maintaining the Assad regime with the assistance of Hezbollah and Iran would somehow continue to aid Palestinian resistance factions. The question is how are Iran, Hezbollah and Bashar Al Assads Syrian Arab Army resisting the Israeli occupation? Such claims have yet to come into fruition.

Some may argue, perhaps, that Iran, Hezbollah, and the Syrian regime fund and arm various resistance movements within the Palestinian Territories, yet one could also argue it is simply a facade. Although many singularly obsess with the corruption of the oil-rich Gulf states, Iran and its counterparts, Hezbollah and Bashar Al Assad, utilize the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a means of exploitation in order to legitimize themselves and further advance Irans regional creeping hegemony and its agenda to spread its Waliyat Al Faqih ideology across the Sunni Arab world and beyond. As Iran provides for Palestinian militant organizations, Hezbollah, Lebanese Shiite militia, additionally receives extensive training and funding from Iran as well. Yet one cannot look the other way while these same entities contribute to the slaughter of Syrian men, women, and children in Aleppo and elsewhere. The same regional powers that lay claim to the principles of liberation and anti-imperialism are the same entities whose actions consistently contributed to the hundreds and thousands of deaths over the last five and a half years inside Syria.

As for now, Aleppo is burning as the world watches. Aleppo is continuously bombarded as people continue to fall for Irans anti-U.S./anti-Israeli rhetoric. 300,000 innocent men, women and children have been killed, many have fled the country yet there are those who still have the audacity to continuously insist that Assad, Iran and Hezbollah are the solution to the regions sociopolitical issues. As the city falls to regime forces, rebel factions will now have to strategize new ways to combat the Syrian Arab Army in the most appropriate manner and liberate other besieged cities of Syria. Although inevitable and unintended, rebel factions must avoid indiscriminate attacks against civilians at all costs so as not to emulate the atrocious behaviors of Syrian regime forces, Hezbollah, the IRGC, and, of course, ISIS.