Al Jazeera Discovers Syria Exists Beyond U.S. Interests
Al Jazeera dutifully reports Syria’s army shelling SDF positions in Aleppo, as if this internal dynamic isn’t the logical, brutal outcome of a decade-long conflict fueled by external actors. What the 'liveblog' conveniently omits is the complicated history of the SDF – a U.S.-backed force nominally fighting ISIS but also controlling significant oil fields and clashing with other Syrian factions.
One might recall the years when much of the Western-aligned media, including Al Jazeera, focused almost exclusively on the Assad regime's atrocities, often overlooking the fragmented, proxy-war nature of the conflict, and certainly not highlighting the SDF’s evolving role post-ISIS 'defeat'. So, the 'Syrian army' (read: Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iran) clashing with the 'SDF' (read:
Kurdish-led forces, once crucial U.S. allies against ISIS, now often left vulnerable) isn't just a sudden outbreak of violence. It's the predictable, bloody continuation of a regional chessboard where the 'bad guys' and 'good guys' were always far more fluid than primetime news suggested. Who knew that when you arm multiple factions in a civil war, they might eventually turn on each other (and
you)?