Reasons Why the Syrian Conflict is Not a Just War

Imagine you are a Syrian refugee, going from camp to camp with little to no hope of finding a better life. Having fled your home with the fears of being killed, tortured, or kidnapped. You are forced to leave your home for staying would be worse than leaving. Sadly, this is the reality for over 4.5 million Syrian refugees. The war has caused a global refugee crisis that has yet to be resolved. The just war theory can be applied to the ongoing Syrian war, which is the ethics and reasons of war. Following the events of the war, and after analyzing the motives behind the decisions made it is apparent

The Syria civil war began in 2011, with the killing of a thirteen-year old boy, charged with graffitiing the walls of a church. “The killing of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib in custody, and the return of his mutilated body to his family, led to widespread rioting throughout the province”. He was wrongfully imprisoned and killed, after he was killed riots broke out across the country, people were enraged. This was not the sole event that caused the war, there were many reasons that led up to the war. One major reason was the Assad regime which has dictated over the country for many decades. The Regime is the current form of Syrian government and is led by Bassar-al-Hassad, who has been the Syrian dictator for many decades. The people felt that Assad regime was unfair, wanted Assad to step down and for the government to be reformed. The people did not like the way that the government worked, they wanted new laws to be put in place that were fair and gave more rights to the people. To demonstrate this, the people protested, at first the riots were peaceful and relatively small but as the protesting got more popular and more people became involved, the more violent they became. The more people that got involved the more afraid they became, what was at first peaceful protesting became a country wide movement for reformation.

The Regime responded to these protests and demands made by the people by giving a series of speeches that promised peace and reform. These speeches were given over a series of months, with talked a plan to reform the current governmental system. These “changes include the right to protest and civil dissent in Syria. Assad also spoke of the need for economic reforms and greater accountability”. However, theses speeches had no effect on the people, and they kept protesting. Assad’s plan was never really put into effect meaning they were just empty words. The protests got more intense and violent to which the Regime responded with the same intensity and violence. Syrian military was deployed to every city within the country with the intent to beat the rebellion down. “The summer of 2011 saw a sharp increase in the daily number of casualties as the regime sought to crush the rebellion. This period also saw increased defections from the army, and the first appearance of organized, armed opposition to the Assad regime”. Within the same year both the regime and the rebels responded to violence with more focused and organized violence. The rebellion got bigger, so the regime responded by deploying militia to every city in Syria, to which the rebellion responded by organizing themselves into a sort of army. They became a force to be reckoned with, no longer peaceful protestors.

The just war theory explains the ethics and justice system involved with war. Looking through the lens of the rebels looking at the war, the Regime has treated them unfairly, they protested, and the Regime responded with violence. To the rebels the Regime has done nothing butt kill and tear down the people, not bothering to listen to their needs. But when the lens is flipped the Regime tried to preach reformation, but the people did not heed their words. So, they had to respond by getting rid of any opposition before it spirals out of control. Looking at the war from the lens of the just war ethical theory which states “War may be waged when circumstances justify it. But even this theory requires that there be no reasonable alternative to war, and that the proposed military action will accomplish more good than bad”. So really the war was not justified, the people were protesting, and the Regime did not do their part to meet the people’s needs. There are many alternatives to war; negotiation, compliance, nonviolence, peace, or cooperation to name a few. War was not Syria’s last resort, the rebels and the Regime could have negotiated and come to an agreement, the Regime could have listened to the rebels and complied to their needs.

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Looking at the beginning of the war it was not born out of necessity but “born out of the collapse of civil societies, perpetuated by fear, greed, and paranoia”. The countries structure was crumbling and eventually collapsed. The people for a long time had been “brutally repressed” by the Regime, and so the people snapped. They required fairness, but the Regime responded to opposition by almost immediately deploying militia to every city of Syria, which did nothing but further the conflict. They made no real attempts to cooperate or negotiate, instead going straight to war. All that has come out of military interference was bloodshed. So, by definition of just war theory the Syrian war was unnecessary and unjust.

The fighting went back and forth all the way through 2012, up until that point the Regime was conquering and gaining ground, the rebels were pushing into lands owned by the Regime. The rebels wanted to push through and meet Assad head on, but at the end of 2012 neither side could fight anymore. Which means that there was a stalemate, neither side could fight so for the time being there was no fighting, the war was at a standstill. This stalemate is “derived from the fact that while the regime was unable to reconquer and hold all the areas that it had ceded to the insurgency, the rebels themselves lacked the strength to move forward into regime-controlled areas and defeat Assad head on.” The rebels had taken land that belonged to the Regime, and the Regime was trying to regain that land. However, the rebels lacked the strength to push on and the Regime lacked the strength and manpower to take back the land the rebels had taken. Thus, there was a stalemate, which is when the war essentially comes to a standstill. The war did come to a standstill but that did not mean it came to an end. In fact, the war is still going on today, it was never resolved during the stalemate.

Consider the theories of personhood and rights, these explain what a person really is and the rights they deserve. Human rights theory is essentially the basis of all ethical theories, with personhood to help supplement and explain.

There is still fighting today, in fact in just the “last 4 years about 0.4 million people have been killed in Aleppo (a city in Syria) and its surroundings. Most of its population has either been killed as a result of aerial bombardment, blown off with cannons or has moved to Europe through Turkey”. There have been more than half a million deaths since the beginning of the war in 2011. The Regime has specifically targeted the city of Aleppo since it is priority to gain control of. The war today has also spread beyond the borders of Syria going into most if not all neighboring countries. Which has caused a global refugee crisis, the war has instilled fear into thousands of families causing them to flee the country.

There is no immediate end in sight to these issues, the war is still ongoing with no attempt at resolution. There will continue to be more bloodshed and further crisis the longer the war goes on. The war was never and will never be ethical as long as it goes on. By the laws and rules of the just war theory, there is no part of the Syrian war that is just or ethical.