Syria
The Syrian Civil War rages on with what seems like an endless ferocity. The War, now in its fifth year, has led to the death of 400,000 people and displaced millions more, creating a global humanitarian crisis.
To understand how the war has reached the point it is at now, one must realize that it all started in Tunisia in late 2010. This was the beginning of the Arab Spring, a series of protests against dictators that controlled many countries in the Middle East. The protests quickly spread to Syria, Libya and Egypt. Protests in Egypt led to the resignation of former President Hosni Mubarak, so there was a sign of hope that the Middle East would embrace democracy and that a somewhat peaceful turnover of the reigns of power would be possible. But as Libya slipped into civil war, and Syria soon followed, fear that a long and ferocious battle would continue. The Libyan civil war against the government ended in the fall of 2011 with the death of Muammar Gaddafi. But the civil war that followed in Syria proved that Bashar al-Assad would not let go of power so easily. It seemed to be a deadlock as Assad clamped down on the civilian population. Efforts to arm moderate rebels failed and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jumped at the opportunity to grab territory due to the Iraqi government’s instability and chaos next door.
Easily taking large amounts of territory, ISIS soon proved itself as a force to be reckoned with and one that would not be leaving so easily. After the Paris, France terror attacks in the Fall of 2015 had stricken the international community to its core, focus on the destruction of ISIS quickly became a key priority. Russia soon entered the seemingly never-ending number of parties involved in the conflict, siding with the Assad regime to defeat terrorism. But a problem soon appeared: what the Assad considered terrorism was any opposition to the regime.
So now with the constant bombing of rebel held Aleppo by Russian and Regime forces, an offensive launched by coalition forces to retake the city of Mosul and a seemingly endless stream of desperate people looking to find refuge, The Syrian Civil War continues on. It will remain a stain on the consciousness of the world as country by country simply sits by and waits for an end to this horrible war.