After the invasion of Iraq, the United States did not prevent al-Qaida attacks against the Shiites. While those attacks seemed to work in reducing Shiites' power, Iran sided with the chaotic Iraqi state as they derived the opportunity to establish an aggressive Shiite militia from the situation with an organization that had already been sharpened against Sunnis.
Calling for a democratic election, Iran was well aware of the improbability of the Sunnis' coming to power in Iraq, yet did not do the same thing in Syria, knowing that the support base of the Nusayri Assad regime could not exceed 20 percent of the general population. In short, Iran did not deem Syria worthy of democracy, unlike in Iraq where they led the Shiites to power through democratic elections.
After the slaughter of 400,000 people by the Assad regime, DAESH, Iranian militia, Hezbollah, the Shiite legions and Russia have all begun to attack Syrian oppositional groups and civilians without discriminating between battlefields and camping sites. The irresolute and incomprehensible policies of the U.S. led Russia to behave as an elephant in a glass shop destroying everything in Syria.
Due to the pain experienced by the 40 million people killed in World War II, the world system took encouraging steps in strengthening human rights, women rights and arms laws.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the existence of DAESH, which has turned into a serious distress for Muslims, served as a smoke screen for the West. Losing time with the shocking images DAESH displays murdering people and burning historical sites, thousands of Syrian people continue to be killed.
The United Nations, Western public opinion, human rights organizations, and Western parliaments turned a blind eye to the following crimes:
Poisoning thousands by chemical weapons,
Bombing civilian sites by barrel bombs,
Abandoning thousands to death by starvation in Madaya from Hezbollah blockade,
Slaughtering people by the Iranian militia,
Effecting ethnic cleansing in Arab and Turkmen villages,
Suppressing unsupportive Kurds with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the pupil of the U.S. and Russia.
Understanding their incapacity to protect Assad by themselves, Iran invited Russia to mass murder. Russia has obliged by increasing the civilian causalities in Syria.
The pretext of struggling against DAESH has become as ridiculous as the witch hunts in the European middle ages. Russian planes are bombing not only the legitimate oppositional groups but also the people, striking civilian camps and aid trucks. After invading Crimea and parts of Ukraine, Russia aims at regaining prestige in the world by slaughtering Muslims.
In our youth, we considered invasion and slaughter as evil through Western values and rights. Yet the West no longer holds any moral system while Russia continues to kill civilians.
About the author
İhsan Aktaş is Chairman of the Board of GENAR Research Company. He is an academic at the Department of Communication at Istanbul Medipol University.
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