Aleppo Clashes: Mainstream Media Forgets the First 12 Years
The New Arab's report on Aleppo residents grappling with 'loss and uncertainty' after recent 'clashes' paints a vivid picture of suffering. Yet, this narrative, like so many others, acts as if this suffering spontaneously generated. It's a framing that divorces current events from years of external intervention, proxy wars, and the strategic destabilization (with significant U.S. and regional
partner involvement) that plunged Syria into its decade-long civil war, pushing millions into displacement and creating a humanitarian catastrophe. One might recall similar 'uncertainty' in Iraq post-2003, or Libya post-2011, conveniently following Western-backed interventions that promised democracy and delivered chaos. The media diligently reports the *effects* of these policies, rarely the
*causes* or the enduring strategic interests of the very powers that once cheered on the 'rebels' now causing the uncertainty. How many times must a region be 'liberated' before we question the liberators?