Vladimir Putin bombed the hospital where I was born yesterday. Aleppo's University Hospital was bombed by Russian warplanes. Why is it that hospitals always seem to be the first target? You may be seeing a lot of confusing stories in the news about what is happening in Syria, so let me take a moment to fill you in on the realities on the ground.
Syria is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and right now, it is fighting for survival. Bashar al-Assad is a war criminal, no different from Putin, Netanyahu, and the Iranian Ayatollah. Syrians want nothing to do with any of these figures, yet they can't seem to escape them.
The Syrian rebels are fighting America's enemies—Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah fighters have joined forces to back Bashar al-Assad. I am not going to delve into the history of the Syrian civil war, but I want to focus on what is happening right now. Syrians have launched an impressive offensive, taking advantage of the current geopolitical climate and surprising everyone with how quickly they were able to recapture Idlib (the village my family is from), Aleppo, and are now marching toward Hama, Homs, and ultimately Damascus.
Obviously, this is no easy task. Bashar al-Assad has fled the country to Moscow to beg Putin to save him. Putin, wanting to preserve his strategic military base in Syria, obliged and did what he does best—bomb hospitals and civilians from the sky. This time, however, the rebels are prepared. They have built suicide drones to combat the aerial assault, but we know that's no match for the Russian air force. It's a temporary solution at best. What is required is a political solution because a purely military one would be catastrophic for the millions of Syrians who still live in Syria.
As of 2010, almost 10 million Syrians have been forced to become refugees, displaced across the globe, with the majority relocating to Turkey.
What I want you to understand is that this is not a war about religion or politics—it’s about a people living miserably under an evil dictatorship who desperately want and deserve to live with freedom and dignity. The first thing the Free Syrian Army did when they captured Aleppo was visit the Christian community and pledge safety and prosperity. That was no accident—it was a deliberate, thought-out mission to show the world who they are and what they represent. Actions speak louder than words, so they took it a step further and made the same pledge to Aleppo’s Shia community. It is small but exists, and the rebels extended their promise to them as well.
I spent a few summers as a child in Syria. I never saw any segregation or hostility toward people of different faiths. Syria is the melting pot of the world's oldest religions.
The next couple of weeks, before Trump takes office, will be critical for Syria. We have no idea how Trump will react, but historically, he has given in to Putin very easily—either because he fears him, respects and admires authoritarian dictators, or for other reasons I won't get into right now. Trump's presidency will have global ramifications, and I won’t lie—the next four years are going to be rough for all of us.
I don’t know what he will do, but I do know this: we must not give in. We cannot give up. Others across the world have sacrificed their lives for freedom. It is not something we should ever take for granted, and I certainly do not.
