How an Evil Coalition Destroyed Syria [The Destruction of Syria: How We See It]

SSM Statement, April 2025

The poor people of Syria! Fifteen years ago, they had a safe and moderately prosperous country with high-quality hospitals, free national health care, free education through university, and no national debt. Syria was self-sufficient in energy, with extra oil for export. Syria grew its own wheat, fruit, and vegetables. Syria was a major tourist attraction, with Damascus often praised as one of the most welcoming and interesting cities on earth. Syria was safe: women could safely walk the streets night or day. Syria was ethnically and religiously diverse. The majority was Sunni Muslim, but there were significant minorities of Druze, Alawi, Christian, and Kurd. The government was inclusive and secular.

When the U.S. and allies invaded Iraq in 2003, Syria provided safe refuge for 1.2 million refugees fleeing the war. Syria’s generosity was praised.

Syria was steadfast in supporting Palestinian rights and resistance organizations. Within Syria, Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Nakba had the same rights and access to education and jobs that Syrians had. Syria provided bases for Palestinian organizations from the PFLP to Hamas.

Of course, Syria was not perfect. There were elements of bureaucracy, corruption, and political authoritarianism. As two young men said to me outside the Grand Ummayad Mosque in Damascus in 2016, “We have two priorities: first, defeat the terrorists; second, get rid of corruption.” Because of Syria’s support for the Palestinian cause, Israel was constantly trying to infiltrate and destabilize Syria. Because Syria was a longstanding ally of the Soviet Union and then Russia, and had many socialist characteristics, the West was continually trying to bring about “regime change” in Syria. Wahhabist sectarian forces in the Gulf were keen on changing the secular regime in Damascus [to a theocratic one]. With powerful enemies, Syria had to limit freedoms and closely monitor opposition.

Despite the shortcomings and difficulties, Syria was a wonderful country for most Syrians until the “dirty war” to destroy it intensified in 2011. In 2020, one poor Syrian selling goods from the sidewalk said with sadness, “Syria used to be the best country on earth.”

Syria Today

When the Assad government collapsed on December 8, many Syrians desperately hoped that finally things would change for the better. The majority supported Assad and the secular, inclusive and semi-socialist Syria. But they were beaten and tired from years of war and poverty.

Today, the hopes or fantasy of some Syrians that life would finally get better have evaporated. Millions of Syrians are afraid for their lives. Thousands have been killed, especially in the coastal cities and villages. The new jihadist government, led by Ahmed al Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al Jolani) says they are investigating the atrocities but not a single person has been punished. Atrocities against minority groups are continuing and kidnapping with demands for ransom are occurring in Damascus. Videos and photos can be seen at the Telegram channel @Syriadoc.

The Sharaa government has laid off hundreds of thousands of government workers in a move toward privatizing the economy. Meanwhile Turkish products are flooding the market, driving Syrian manufacturing out of business.

Israel continues to bomb Syria and now controls all of the Golan including Mt. Hermon and into southern Syria. Israel has established military bases around Quneitra and threatens to go further.

While the EU has started lifting some sanctions, the US continues to sanction Syria. While Qatar, Turkey and the EU have started supplying some recovery funds and support, the situation is still grim for most Syrians.

Millions of Syrian refugees in neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are seeing what is happening and pausing their plans to go back.

A minority of Syrians want a sectarian Sunni Muslim dominated country. The majority, including many Sunni Muslims, do not support this but are afraid of the new Damascus regime.

The sectarian regime in power is bringing religion into schools and universities. Turkish products are flooding the markets in Syria, lowering prices but threatening Syrian produced goods. The extreme irony is that some of these products coming into Syria were produced with manufacturing machines stolen from the Aleppo industrial zone in 2013-14. Meanwhile unemployment in Syria is now very high, especially after hundreds of thousands of Syria government employees were fired by the HTS regime.

How did Al Qaeda do it?

How did the jihadists overthrow a previously stable and secure Syrian government which had widespread popular support? How did they seize power beginning December 8 after only a few weeks fighting?

The answer is that it was not a few weeks; it was the result of fourteen years of aggression and hybrid warfare by a coalition of powerful countries including the US, UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel. All of them ganged up to destroy the thriving nation of Syria. There are four major components to the destruction of Syria: a foreign funded terrorist army, economic strangulation, theft of essential resources and media warfare. We will briefly review and give examples of each of these components.

Foreign Funded Terrorism

Beginning in the spring of 2011, Syria was destabilized and weakened as hundreds of terrorist cells began attacking government facilities and soldiers. Weapons and militants crossed into Syria from Jordan in the south, from Lebanon in the east and from Turkey in the north.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia funded jihadist militias and broadcast extremist propaganda. Turkey provided training camps and transit through Turkey. The US Central Agency Agency supplied weapons and other support. As the effort to overthrow the Damascus government continued, other Western nations joined the effort. Israel provided medical help to injured jihadists. It is a plain fact that this coalition of countries sponsored a terrorist army to overthrow the government of this formerly peaceful country.

The motives of these countries varied. For Qatar and Turkey, affiliated with the sectarian Muslim Brotherhood, there was religious motivation plus a planned gas pipeline from Qatar which they wanted to run through Syria to Turkey. For Turkey, there was President Erdogan’s wish to dominate the region as the Ottomans had, plus crushing the Kurdish resistance. For Saudi Arabia, there was religious motivation plus competition with Syria for influence in Lebanon. For the U.S., Syria had been on the US and Israeli hit list for years. It did not matter that the US was allying with Al Qaeda. As former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton in a 2012 leaked email, “AQ is on our side in Syria.” As for Israel, any country which supported Palestinian rights was deemed to be terrorist and subject to attack. This was made explicit in Netanyahu’s 1995 book “Fighting Terrorism”. Syria was identified as one of the targets.

The anti-Syria coalition supported various terrorist armies from 2011 until 2018. At times there were hundreds  of them. From early on, the fighting was brutal. There was widespread use of suicide bombers and massacres of captured Syrian soldiers. Unfortunately, most of the videos which document this have been removed from internet platforms. In these videos, which are now prohibited, one could see the bombing of the most modern hospital in Aleppo and the subsequent murder of Syrian soldiers who had been guarding the hospital. One could see a “rebel” biting into the liver of a murdered Syrian soldier near Homs. One could see a “rebel” gleefully cutting the head off a fourteen year old Syrian Palestinian in the back of a pickup truck in Aleppo. Largely unknown in the West, the jihadist attacks on the Syrian government and people were incredibly ruthless. Tens of thousands of jihadists were recruited from around the globe – from North America, Europe, south Asia and west China. They were indoctrinated with Wahhabi ideology and often fueled with the drug captagon which gave them a sense of invincibility.

Millions of Syrians fled the fighting, going to the nearest neighboring countries Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Millions were lured into going to Germany and West Europe where the societies need well educated young workers to cover the high retirement expenses of an aging population. With low birth rates, it was to German industry’s benefit to attract young Syrians.

Meanwhile, using social media and Saudi built mosques all over the world, the enemies of Syria recruited tens of thousands of indoctrinated jihadists. They came from the West including Canada and Europe and from the East including Uzbekistan and Xinjiang China. The dirty war on Syria was financed with tens of billions of dollars in support from the West and allies.

In 2018 it looked like the war was almost over. The Syrian Army had defeated the terrorists in all major cities, finally in Aleppo and then Douma on the outskirts of Damascus. It was agreed they could withdraw to Idlib province on the border with Turkey. There was to be agreement and reconciliation with the process led by the Astana group of Russia, Iran and Turkey. The Syrian government had a Minister of Reconciliation for years, permitting jihadist to lay down their arms and rejoin Syrian society on a peaceful basis. Thousands of jihadist fighters were transported by government buses from Aleppo, Douma and other locations to Idlib.

Economic Strangulation

In 2018 it appeared that the first task – to defeat the terrorists – had been accomplished. Armed insurgents in Aleppo and the outskirts of Damascus were defeated militarily. By agreement they were [many had been] allowed to turn in weapons and depart for the province of Idlib where they were able to effectively run their own affairs. Syrian government buses took the jihadists to Idlib. It looked like the war was over; the jihadists would be allowed to control a small area but not threaten the whole country while a permanent solution was worked out. Russia, Turkey and Iran formed the Astana Process to help finally resolve the conflict.

Meanwhile, the West and its allies made it impossible for Syria to trade normally, to rebuild or to recover. Syria’s biggest trading partner, Lebanon, was also put under sanctions and threats. Under the “Caesar Sanctions” the US outlawed the Syrian Central Bank and threatened secondary sanctions against any country or business which dealt with it. Syrian industry, hospitals, and schools that had been destroyed in the war could not be rebuilt. The West and its allies which funded the “dirty war” would not contribute or invest in rebuilding Syria. Further, they threatened any other country, business or individual who wanted to invest. The result was no investment.

The military conflict was over but the Syrians who lived under government administration continued suffering under an economic war. Meanwhile, in Idlib province on Turkey’s border, aid and support flowed in from the West which had not given up their war on Damascus. They changed tactics in the situation: helping HTS and the civilians under their control and blocking aid to Damascus and the majority of civilians.

Theft of Essential Resources

In 2014, with Aleppo under siege and many factories in the industrial zone of Aleppo not operating, the enemies of Syria began dismantling and stealing precious factory machines and taking them to Turkey. It was an industrial scale operation to de-industrialize Syria. It was blatant theft, certainly approved at the highest levels since the flatbed trucks crossed the international border. But there was worse to come.

Beginning in 2015, the U.S. started overflying Syria with the stated mission of deterring ISIS. They did not have authorization from Damascus which noted that the US had actively helped ISIS at various times in the past. Yet the US did it anyway, in spite of Damascus and international law. Soon the US was cultivating the relationship with the Kurdish forces in eastern Syria. Under US tutelage they changed their name from the YPG to the SDF. The US set up military bases and, with the secessionist Kurds, took effective control of the entire north east where the majority of Syrian wheat is grown and oil pumped.

Since then, Damascus has not had access to its own wheat and energy national resources. They have been intentionally starved and emiserated. During these years Syrian civilians had power two or three hours per day.

Misinformation and False Flags

The fourth element of the war on Syria is relentless propaganda demonizing the Assad “regime” and white-washing the opposition. From the start in March 2011, the conflict in Syria was framed as a “civil war” with a peaceful opposition trying to oust a dictator. It was deeply ironic that major Arab proponents of this narrative were Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both of which are iron-fisted monarchies. In 2012 the former foreign news editor of the Guardian reported “Most Syrians back Assad but you would never know from Western media”. Al Jazeera, funded by the Qatari monarchy, was an important part of the smear campaign. One of their own reporters resigned in disgust when Al Jazeera refused to broadcast video showing jihadists entering Syria from Lebanon. The reason: this video was proof that the uprising was NOT just peaceful. Western journalists such as Marie Colvin blatantly distorted facts. She wanted NATO intervention as was done in Libya. Another journalist, Richard Engel, participated in a fake kidnapping to drive home the message “good Syrian rebels” vs. “bad Assad supporters”. Then the White Helmets were created by former British military officer. This organization, funded by the West, was a slick public relations tool to win public support for the war on Assad. Its beginning, its purpose and its claims were all lies.

From 2011 through 2018 there were numerous “false flag” events. An early one was the fake kidnapping of Richard Engel. It included a staged shootout with acting on the part of both the kidnappers and the liberators. Later events included many real deaths perpetrated by the opposition. In the region of Houla near Homs, dozens of civilians were killed. The opposition quickly blamed Syrian supporters from the Alawite community. This was immediately accepted by the West. The Assad government was condemned and numerous countries broke relations. It was later revealed that the perpetrators of the civilian murders were sectarian opposition forces. They murdered and slit the throats of families which had converted from Sunni to Shia faith with the encouragement of Iran. The bloodshed led to a confrontation between the terrorists in the town and the Syrian army with many more deaths.

In August 2013, one of the biggest “false flag” events happened in the outskirts of Damascus known as Ghouta. Hundreds of civlians died from sarin gas poisoning. The Assad was quickly blamed with rising calls in the West for direct US or NATO intervention. War promoters talked of the need to “protect civilians”. Next year Seymour Hersh reported the results of his in depth investigation: the perpetrators of the Ghouta sarin gas attack were a jihadist faction aided by Turkey’s intelligence agency.

For years there were report after report alleging the use of chemical weapons by the Assad “regime”. After some of these incidents the US would bomb a location in Syria. After a little more time, it would be revealed that it was either a staged or fake event.

One of the last of these false flag events occurred in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus. There were dozens of dead in one building and a video showing “White Helmet” members creating an uproar at a medical clinic. The US and UK quickly determined guilt and bombed Syrian air bases. Over subsequent years, it emerged that the incident and report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was highly flawed and the perpetrators were likely from the opposition.

The above are just a few of the numerous sensational incidents and media stories which were part of the war on Syria.

Media distortion continues. When the Assad government collapsed, media exaggerated the celebrations and hid the civilian fears. Media buried the fact that the new self-appointed President of Syria was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, was on the FBI most wanted list just a few months ago, and he was previously a leader of the extreme and ultra-violent ISIS. The former opthamologist Bashar Al Assad has been painted as a “butcher” while Al Sharaa is shaking hands with Germany’s foreign minister.

The Collapse

While the Syrian government and people were impoverished by the West, Turkey and Gulf monarchies, the HTS jihadists were protected and nurtured in Idlib province. While the Syrian Army declined and ossified, HTS was trained and given modern weaponry by NATO and NATO puppets. Making matters worse, Syria’s traditional allies – Russia, Iran, Lebanese Resistance – were all weakened or preoccupied with their own wars. The situation was compounded by the inability of the Syrian government to successfully combat corruption, leaving it vulnerable to infiltration and bribery. The Assad government probably made a mistake by placing too much trust in the Arab League, resisting military upgrade with the help of Russia and Iran, and not responding to the continual Israeli attacks. As a result, there was demoralization in addition to impoverishment. Hollowed out, the Syrian Arab Army collapsed when the Turkish and Western backed jihadists launched their assault the day after Israel suspended their attacks on Lebanon.

What’s the Future?

Despite the massacres, the Foreign Minister of the HTS/Al Qaeda government in Syria was greeted at the European Union in Brussels a few days ago. Grants and loans were promised to them to help rebuild Syria. The countries who invested countless billions of dollars in the “dirty war” destroying Syria, and finally succeeded in “regime change” , are now trying to stabilize Syria under the leadership of someone who was deemed a “terrorist” with a $10 million dollar bounty on his head by the USA just a few months ago.

Turkey continues to occupy land in the north and dominates the Syrian economy while Israel is expanding military bases in southern Syria and [relentless] bombing Syria military facilities and depots at will. Meanwhile the US continues to occupy land the east, with all the benefits going to the Kurdish group there.

[Former members of HTS, now the new Syrian army have been slaughtering Alawite, Christian and Druze civilians in the northwestern mountains and coastal areas of the country. Turkey and Israel are publicly negotiating over who will control which parts of Syria.]

Syrian analyst Kevork Almassian says, “I think the best case scenario is for Syria to become a federation; otherwise, it will break up completely.”

One month ago, one of the world’s most despised war criminals, Benjamin Netanyahu, was smiling as he looked out over Syria from Mt. Hermon. Meanwhile, many Syrians and friends cry.