{"id":9820,"date":"2019-07-02T09:32:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=9820"},"modified":"2019-07-02T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:32:16","slug":"syria-8-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=9820","title":{"rendered":"Syria 8 Years On"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2019\/03\/16\/20190316-d0631.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Syria has certainly been one of the saddest stories of recent history.  The optimism of the Arab Spring in 2011, encouraged by Western governments and then totally let down by them, becoming the second deadliest war of the 21st century so far (after the Congo). By 2016 it had seriously wounded or killed 1 in 10 Syrians. It is currently estimated that over 5 million refugees had fled the country and perhaps 8 millions are displaced inside it, from a total 2010 population of 21 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2019\/03\/16\/20190316-d0575.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As so often around the world, the US had completely misread the situation in the area, not least in its 2003 invasion of Iraq which provided fertile ground for the growth of ISIS, which with covert support from both US allies such as Turkey and enemies such as the Assad regime also became a major player in Syria. At least it had the sense to support the Kurds who became the most effective force in the fight against ISIS thanks to US air power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2019\/03\/16\/20190316-d0577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But both politically and militarily the US was totally outsmarted by Russia, who came to the defence of the Syrian regime (and also took some decisive action against ISIS.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2019\/03\/16\/20190316-d0593.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is very hard to see much hope for the future of Syria, even though the civil war appears to be coming to a possibly bloody close in Idlib. What shape will that future take, and what will happen to the currently autonomous region of northeast Syria, the Kurdish area of Rojava, seen by many, but probably not the Syrian regime or its Russian supporter, and certainly not by Turkey as a model for a new federal and democratic Syria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2019\/03\/16\/20190316-d0655.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More about the protest and more pictures on My London Diary:  <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2019\/03\/mar.htm#syria\" target=\"_blank\">8th Anniversary of the Syrian Revolution<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:10px\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, please <strong><em>share on social media<\/em><\/strong>. <br>And <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/paypal.me\/Rephoto\" target=\"_blank\">small donations via Paypal<\/a> &#8211; perhaps the cost of a beer &#8211; would be appreciated.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:center\">All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:10px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/buildingsoflondon.co.uk\/comments.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">To order prints or reproduce images<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syria has certainly been one of the saddest stories of recent history. The optimism of the Arab Spring in 2011, encouraged by Western governments and then totally let down by them, becoming the second deadliest war of the 21st century so far (after the Congo). By 2016 it had seriously wounded or killed 1 in &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=9820\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Syria 8 Years On<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[362,360,17,244,16,358,361,359,363],"class_list":["post-9820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-8-years","tag-arab-spring","tag-london","tag-march","tag-protest","tag-syria","tag-syrian-civil-war","tag-syrian-revolution","tag-war-crimes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9821,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9820\/revisions\/9821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}