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"We heard countless stories of young rebels dying on the front lines
because they ran out of bullets and were then pinned down. As
Syrian-Americans, rebels would ask us: “Why doesn’t America send us
weapons?” We would try to explain our understanding and they would argue
their points back to us. As Syrians, we already knew them. But they too
just wanted to be heard.
All the conspiracy theories about weapons being smuggled to rebels to
fuel a proxy war have no leg to stand on in reality. All the talk about
private financiers who paid rebels to do their bidding was
sensationalized garbage. Of course there are rebel factions that receive
money from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states but, even if you
combine all this together, it is just a drop in the ocean."
I know all but the clueless already know this, but the clueless around
the left remain, unfortunately, many.
MK
Human Strength Shines Out of Syria’s Never Ending Sea of Hopelessness
https://news.vice.com/articles/human-strength-shines-out-of-syria-s-never-ending-sea-of-hopelessness
By Racan Alhoch
March 15, 2014 | 11:25 pm
Racan Alhoch is the son of immigrants from Damascus, Syria. He is the
managing director of The Amal Project, a non-political, non-profit,
humanitarian relief organization and an associate at the Rutgers Center
for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights in Newark, New Jersey.
I spent around five months on the ground in Syria, traveling all over
the war-torn country with my partner. We went into the trip thinking
that we would emerge with so much to say but, having been home for
almost four months now, we are still unable to articulate the big
picture.
Contrary to the popular belief of expats, you cannot grasp the big
picture unless you are in the picture itself. This may seem
counterintuitive, but it is also unsurprising. Our revolution is a
contradiction of so many beliefs that were previously held to be true.
On the third anniversary of the uprising, I’ve decided it’s time to say
something about the state of our revolution.
Things are bad. Not just with the raging war on the ground, but also in
the political sphere, with an amateur political opposition divided by
hatred for ideological nuance and plagued by cronyism. During our trip
we angrily discussed this many times, as most Syrians there do.
We arrived in a village somewhere on the outskirts of Aleppo the day
before Assad’s army firebombed an elementary school. Every child in the
school was injured and many were killed the following day. Lots more
died later, succumbing to their injuries due to a lack of proper
treatment. In total, 75 children died.
We went to the ill-equipped field hospital to find out which supplies
they needed and what we could potentially get for them. The place was
packed with crying parents and screaming children. They had run out of
beds — though they only had four — so the bombing victims were lying on
the ground, in the courtyard, and on the sidewalk outside. Wherever
staff could lay someone down they did. It was the most horrific scene I
have ever witnessed.
A field hospital in Aleppo. Photo by Racan Alhoch.
An unexploded mortar round on the outskirts of Lattakia. Photo by Racan
Alhoch.
We asked hospital staff what kind of supplies they were missing. Almost
all replied “everything.” Eventually a parent came up and enquired: “Do
you work for the Etilaf?” (Etilaf is the Syrian National Coalition, the
country’s political opposition.) “No,” I replied.
“Where are they? Why are two kids like you asking us what we need but in
the last two years we have not seen one of those hotel revolutionaries
come to Syria and ask what we need?” the parent responded. “And they
want to lead the country?! They think we will let them lead us!? We
would rather remain at war with Assad!”
This happened in the first month of our trip but this theme endured for
the rest of our time in Syria. In every bombing we witnessed, every
death was followed by grieving parents screaming: “Where is the world?!
Where is our opposition?!”
People kept telling us that, instead of spending millions meeting in
five-star hotels, Etilaf should be funneling money to the rebels for
weapons. On many occasions, people spoke to us as if we had some
influence, but we knew it was just desperation. They just wanted their
stories to be heard. And this went on for all five months.
The rebels were not properly equipped to fend off attacks by the
well-appointed regime. Nobody was sending them weapons or ammunition. We
spent four days running around Aleppo with a friend who was attempting
to attach custom scopes to Soviet-era bolt-action rifles for his older
brother’s rag-tag rebel brigade.
An elderly rebel on the front lines in Aleppo. Photo by Racan Alhoch.
A crater left by a SCUD missile, on the outskirts of Aleppo. Photo by
Racan Alhoch.
We heard countless stories of young rebels dying on the front lines
because they ran out of bullets and were then pinned down. As
Syrian-Americans, rebels would ask us: “Why doesn’t America send us
weapons?” We would try to explain our understanding and they would argue
their points back to us. As Syrians, we already knew them. But they too
just wanted to be heard.
All the conspiracy theories about weapons being smuggled to rebels to
fuel a proxy war have no leg to stand on in reality. All the talk about
private financiers who paid rebels to do their bidding was
sensationalized garbage. Of course there are rebel factions that receive
money from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states but, even if you
combine all this together, it is just a drop in the ocean.
Three years, over 140,000 dead, more than nine million displaced, and
many thousands of missing people later, we still have not been able to
tell the people’s stories. Journalists who see a Syrian story as a quick
buck, or who visit with a specific vision for a story they won’t deviate
from, have drowned us out.
It is partially our fault, a rookie mistake by a community of people who
literally don’t know how to deal with the freedom to express themselves.
In the beginning we thought that our story would sell itself. We thought
if people just googled it they would see what we see, that a regime with
a history of human rights violations is shooting unarmed demonstrators.
That’s not how it happened at all.
People getting water from old wells because the regime cut off water,
near Lattakia. Photo by Racan Alhoch.
Hiking in the mountains of Lattakia to bypass regime checkpoints. Photo
by Racan Alhoch.
But in this never-ending sea of hopelessness there is something that has
stopped the revolution from drowning — the people inside Syria. Nobody
can deny that Syria was a popular uprising. If it wasn’t it would have
died out long ago. As well as the constant death and suffering we saw in
Syria, we also witnessed so many unbelievable stories of perseverance
and strength.
We met a woman in Kafranbel who, in the face of a war, was already
planning an education movement, aiming to provide women with more
independence. We met a rebel in Maarat al Nouman who lost his leg in
battle, got the best prosthetic he could buy, and went back to fight.
“We don’t feel pain anymore,” he told us. “The elation we feel because
we are finally free numbs it. Despite our injuries we smile. And there
is no turning back, we will continue to fight.”
In Aleppo, we met a computer engineer who left a lucrative career and
lavish life in the West to return to Syria and help set up rebel
communications.
Three years into our revolution against unimaginable odds, we still have
not given up. They can shoot us, bomb us, gas us, and lie about us in
the media, but we are not going away. For every person they kill, 10
more revolutionaries emerge. The stories of people who keep the hopeful
spirit of the revolution alive are just as plentiful as the stories of
suffering. They just need a voice that we haven’t given them yet.
Follow Racan Alhoch on Twitter: @Racanarchy
Read more on the anniversary of the Syrian civil war:
Syria's Cultural Heritage Is a Major Victim of the Country's Civil War
Waiting for Victory: A Personal View of the Syrian Civil War
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