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Death and political bankruptcy

Aug 13,2016 - Last updated at Aug 13,2016

The daily killings of civilians in Syria, especially by Syrian barrel bombs and Russian aerial bombardments, hardly make international news, as if the world has become indifferent about the five and a half-year-old civil war there.

Yet, when one or two people are murdered in some Western nations, it is often treated as “breaking news” by television stations and makes headlines in daily newspapers.

It is as if life in Syria, Iraq, Yemen or Palestine do not count anymore.

Placing less or no value on Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni life, as well as on life in other parts of the world, especially in developing countries, has become the norm rather than the exception.

Getting back to Syria, it is a big puzzle that the opposition groups have not managed to acquire defensive weapons against aerial bombardments after so many years of conflict. 

It has been claimed that the US, which presumably provides some moderate opposition factions in Syrian with all sorts of weapons, did not provide them with anti-aircraft missiles for fear that they may fall in the wrong hands.

As a result, the Syrian civilians who are not part of the war are left defenceless under the bombs falling over them because the West fears that anti-aircraft weapons may fall into the hands of Daesh or other terrorist groups.

What is equally puzzling is the fact that the needed anti-aircraft weapons can be bought on the international market anyway, and the opposition groups are not short of cash to buy them. 

Why haven’t such weapons been acquired till now is the biggest puzzle in the Syrian war. 

Many observers have, therefore, come to the conclusion that the Syrian narrative is manipulated from A to Z by major powers who allegedly have some kind of master plan or design for the entire Middle East region and do not really want an end to the bloodletting for some reason or another, including to set the stage for the partition of the country.

Commentators who tend to believe in grand conspiracy theories contend that the dynamics of events and developments in the region are in the hands of big powers, Israel among them.

Whatever the case, and obviously there is no way of knowing for sure which theory is true, innocent people in several regional countries continue to be slaughtered on daily basis without the world even taking notice.

 

The fact that bloody conflicts in the region have continued for so long without a settlement is living testimony to the proposition that the world order is not functioning well and that the United Nations and its Security Council are effectively bankrupt and not worth the money invested in them.

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