You’ve probably heard a lot about the war in Syria since it began five years ago. The conflict has since evolved into multi-faceted civil war between the Bashar al-Assad led government and a multitude oppositional forces, leading to the deaths of more than 250,000 Syrians and creating the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
With so many groups involved in fighting for so many different causes, discussions of what is actually going on in Syria and who the US should support can quickly become convoluted. Are there any good guys left to root for?
Let’s start with who exactly is doing the fighting. First we have the Assad regime, backed by both Iran and Russia. Next are the so-called secular, ‘moderate’ rebel groups, namely the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Included in the broader opposition are Islamist rebel groups, led by Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda linked terrorist organization.
Then we have the closely linked Kurdish rebel groups, which include the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian People's Protection Units (YPG). And then, of course, there’s ISIL.
There’s no way the US should be supporting Obviously Assad and the Islamist extremists. But what about the FSA, the leading secular rebel group? Or the YPG and the PKK, the Kurdish groups fighting ISIL?
Since the late 1970s, the PKK has been an active political organization in Turkey, vying for Kurdish sovereignty in the region. It has a well-documented history of violence, hence the justified terrorist label. The group showed signs of moderation in 2013, but the short-lived peace ended last summer, stirring up a potential civil war in Eastern Turkey. Since then, the PKK has executed several recent bombings against innocent civilians in Istanbul and Ankara, including the most recent attack on March 13. So to say the U.S. shouldn’t fund the PKK is a no-brainer.
But here’s the problem: the U.S. has funded and trained members of the YPG, the PKK ally that’s currently fighting ISIL. The YPG is closely linked with the PKK, but the YPG is also our crucial ally in the war against ISIL. So what if the YPG were to prevail over ISIL? Would that lead to the PKK’s rise? I’m not sure, but I don’t think we want to find out.
Then there’s the Free Syrian Army. On the one hand, these are the guys we should be rooting for. They’re ‘moderate,’ secular, and they want to create a modern democracy in Syria. Sounds like a group we can get behind… except for the fact they may be vulnerable to al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Here’s why: many of the rebel groups in Syria share the common goal of ousting Bashar al-Assad. And while this objective is a noble one, terrorist groups such as al-Nusra have capitalized on this populist goal, branding themselves as fighters for the people.
What’s worse, a recent report from the American Enterprise Institute declared al-Nusra’s low-profile makes them “more dangerous” than ISIL.
Yes, the FSA has explicitly denounced al-Nusra, and the two often fight over land. But this isn’t always the case. According to BBC, the groups have worked together on occasion, and there is concern from Washington that U.S.-funded weapons could make it into al-Nusra’s hands in the future, especially if the groups see that taking down Assad is within their sights.
So what does this leave us with? We can’t root for a violent, dictatorial government or an anti-government terrorist group. But we also can’t get behind moderate groups that have the potential to foster more terrorism in the future. Taking Assad out of power is only the first step in the process. We need good guys to take over once he’s gone. Regrettably, we have none.