March 22, 2015
The Syria Conflict Mapping Project, which is part of former President Jimmy Carter’s nonprofit organization in Atlanta, Georgia, the Carter Center, has just produced another excellent, 35-page richly illustrated report with detailed maps on where the war in Syria currently stands. The report can be accessed here.
The report is broken down by the different geographic regions of Syria, including detailed reporting and analysis of what has been transpiring over the past several months in each of these regions.
The report’s central conclusion is a grim one if you happen to be one of the hyper-optimistic officials who happen to inhabit the West Wing of the White House:
“After four years of crisis, the Syrian conflict still shows no signs of ending. Opposition movements, both political and military, still suffer from crippling divisions, which are exacerbated by divisions among supporters in the international community. The Friends of Syria group of pro-opposition countries has yet to develop a cohesive vision regarding how best to respond to the crisis, leading member states to continue to implement their own, often competing, initiatives. Exacerbating this phenomenon is the poorly controlled –or not controlled at all –borders with Turkey and Iraq,which allowthe multitude of factions to maintain contact with international supporters, including non-state entities and actors.”
In short, there is no unified opposition movement to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, and no likelihood that one will ever emerge as long as they groups spend more time killing each other than fighting the Assad regime. The only thing that seems certain, the report concludes, is that the tragic four year war in Syria will continue for the foreseeable future.
No comments:
Post a Comment