Support in deeds, not words

Allowing Syria’s armed and political conflicts to fester on for more than five years is responsible for the recent terrorist attacks on the Jordanian military outpost in the north of the country. 

The chaos in Syria as a consequence of the protracted civil war has created an environment conducive to the rise of radicalism and terrorism in the entire region and not only around Jordan’s borders. 

The attack on Jordan was bound to happen as long as the Syrian crisis was left to continue for such a long time. Accordingly, the culprits and those most directly responsible for the rise of chaos and the spread of instability in the entire region are the countries that left the Syrian people to stew in their own juices for years without as much as lifting a finger to stop the carnage and destruction in their country. 

There was a time when the civil war in Syria could have been nipped in the bud had international community taken the problem seriously enough right from the start. 

The early start of the civil war in Syria took place in the southern Syrian city of Daraa in 2011, but was left to grow and assume wider proportions in front of the very eyes of the nations that could have made a difference right from the start had they intervened. 

Europe began to pay some of the price for its indifference when hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees crossed Turkish borders in the direction of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and then onwards to the far reaches of the European continent. European nations began to feel the pinch of their hands-off policy on Syria only recently, when throngs of refugees or migrants began to hurt their security and economies. 

The lack of involvement by the West, especially by the US, in the Syrian conflict right from the start created a vacuum that Russia was more than ready to fill first to settle scores with NATO for expanding its military deployments in territories close to the Russian Federation and then to establish outposts for the new Russian empire right in the heart of the Middle East.  

What this whole crisis boils down to is the lack of international will to step in and end the conflict in Syria before it had reached its current level of war and destruction. It is no joke that nearly 400,000 Syrians lost their lives in Syria over the past five years. 

And it is no joke that half of the Syrian population has become either refugees in neighbouring countries or internally displaced. 

This chaos and instability was bound to affect neighbouring countries, Jordan included, especially after some 1.3 million Syrians were allowed to cross its borders in search for safety, security and stability for their families. 

Jordan can of course maintain maximum vigilance and keep enemies away from its borders, but this will come at a high price for its national economy and stability.

Jordan’s security is basic to regional stability. Friendly powers are called upon to support this stability in deeds and not words.