Muhammad al Yousef/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. All rights reserved.Inequality is a top policy issue in the US presidential campaign. In fact, inequality impacts perceptions throughout the world, and the way we think about Syrian lives is no less prejudiced. We all know Syrians are victims of barrel bombs, torture, sieges, and mass displacement. But their suffering is seen through four distorted lenses. Why have Syrian lives mattered so little for five years?
A ‘religious’ war?
In his last State of the Union speech, president Obama said the region was “rooted in conflicts dating back millennia”. His stance echoes a longstanding tradition in western academia and policy: blame culture when policy fails. Is this deterministic line of argument really serving the president’s broader interests? The Middle East has experienced religious wars in the past. But shouldn’t all people have the opportunity to escape their history?
A popular misconception about the Syrian uprisings was that Sunnis were fighting Alawites to establish a Sunni fiefdom in Syria. But as was the case in post-2003 Iraq, sectarian strife in Syria was a result rather than a cause of war. In reality, Assad pitted Alawites against Sunnis to spread insecurity and ensure the regime’s survival. This political game was domestic and geopolitical. Iran was not merely interested in supporting its Shi’a brethren to support the Alawite regime, but also to preserve a political ally in its confrontation with the US and Israel.
