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Isaiah Andrews
Teacher Tammy Schneidler
Advanced Composition
December 15, 2014
Syrian Conflict
Did you know that almost 200,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the
escalating conflict between the forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and
those opposed to his rule? Syria's bloody civil conflict has damaged entire
neighbourhoods and forced more than three million people out of their own
respected homes. Rebel forces in Syria killed as many as 190 civilians and
seized more than 200 hostages during a military offensive in August,
Human Rights watch says. This civil war in Syria is destroying the general
populace: physically, mentally and, because they are facing a war that
occurs daily and are under the constant threat of death, emotionally.
According to human rights groups, thousands of men and womenincluding some children are disappearing off the streets of Syria, this also
includes their workplace, homes, before being taken to official or secret
Detention facilities, where they will languish there for years without legal
recourse or contact with their families.

Causes of the Conflict

Rebellion, an act or a show of defiance toward an authority or
established convention (The free dictionary), is to overthrow a group or

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government with harmless or harmful force to take over or remove

something or someone from power.
Syria is currently facing a civil rebellion. The armed rebellion has
evolved significantly since they started the war, with as many as 1,000
groups having command over 100,000 soldiers in and around Syria. Although
the number of Syrian soldiers is dissipating each day, the civil war in Syria is
also taking its toll on the general populace, as citizens are dying in great
numbers, also.
Because the times in Syria are very tough now for the people who are
not participating in the war, they are literally living in fear day by day, trying
to survive in the harsh war-ridden environment in their country.

Effects of the conflict

More than three million citizens who are not in the war are now fleeing
the country since the conflict has started, most are women and children who
are going into refugee camps that are quickly exceeding their capacities in
the neighbouring cities such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Those places
are now struggling to make room for the many people who are going into
their camps for safety and refuge.
The war in Syria is hurting many people and damaging many buildings,
destroying the people's identity as a once proud people of Syria. Richard
Leventhal and his group from the Cultural Heritage Center at the University
of Pennsylvania is studying how historic sites are used in wars. According to

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Leventhal, "In Syria, the government led by President Bashar Assad violently
stopped the protests. By 2012, Syria was fighting a civil war, with various
rebel groups trying to oust President Assad...heritages helps us determine
who we are and where we come from. In a war, destroying historical sites
can also destroy the identity of a group of people" (Saving Syria's history
from civil war"). Syrians are becoming a shadow of themselves because of
this civil conflict, which is eradicating their historical landmarks as well as
taking so many lives. Some of their historical sites are even being used as
bases for the group ISIS, and they have most likely destroyed some
important artifacts inside the buildings they did use as some basepoint,
causing further identity loss and humiliation for the Syrians.
On top of the destruction of important historical sites in Syria, there are
mass arrests by the regime forces, and the kidnapping of civilians alike by
the Rebel Forces (IS), which is leading to enforced disappearances of large
group of fighting-age men.
Enforced disappearances are an arrest, detention or abduction followed by
the captors refusal to even acknowledge it occurred. The fate or even the
whereabouts of this victims are completely unknown to their family and
friends, and in the camps it is suspected that the detainees are outside the
protection of the law as well.
During the last two years a number of anti-government armed groups
have adopted similar techniques, abducting civilians perceived to be
unsupportive of their cause. While some of these kidnappings can be classed

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as enforced disappearances, with victims vanishing without a trace, other

detainees have been taken hostage, or placed under the threat of death until
their release is negotiated for ransom or a prisoner exchange (UN human
rights office).
Lastly the most significant problem that is resulting from the Syrian
war is the increase of young teens joining into the ranks of the rebels
steadily but surely, according to Raja Abdulrahim,Many worry that as
teenagers increasingly join the front lines, violence will become
institutionalized in Syrian society to a degree beyond what more than three
years of civil war has wrought. Suwaas, who fights with the Islamic Front,
reasoned that it was better than having his son join one of the extremist
Islamist groups. The kid that grows up and sees a shell fall on him or on his
neighbor, he said, is going to grow up and want to fight, (More children
joining ranks of Syrias desperate rebels ).
The war is causing the death toll to rise in syria and with all the tired rebel
fighters deserting the ranks of the rebellion or being killed on the field, their
spots are being filled with teens who have seen death and want to try fight
for they believed is right.

What does this mean for the future?

As Raja Abdulrahim states, In a war that has already claimed more
than 190,000 lives and each day brings new civilian casualties, boys
between the ages of 14 and 17, like Hussein are resigned to dying one way

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or another. Most seem to live by the phrase often heard in rebel areas: Its
all one death. The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates there are
about 5,300 child fighters among the opposition, not including extremist
groups, and 2,000 with pro-government forces,
The Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are
two of the most extreme opposition groups fighting the Syrian government.
Both have been called terrorist groups, In recent weeks, ISIL released videos
showing the murders of two American journalists and a British aid worker in
Syria. ISIL has also been called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
("The faces of Syrias rebel fighters are getting younger").
Well it might mean that the death rate for teens and maybe minors will
increase in the civil war, basically damaging their future as a whole if it
keeps going on in that fashion.
Also the country will and possibly right now as well, slowly turning into
a divided nation with 2 to 3 leaders which will be the President Bashar alAssad controlling one section, an ISIS group leader holding another sector,
and possibly either the last will be a U.S. outpost or to be under control from
the United Nations but only time will tell.

What I have learned from this

I learned that Extremist groups will not stop at anything until they get
what they are after, whether it be by force or from a surrender from their

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opposing enemy, they will even go to brutal ways if need be to get what
they're after.
Also that the rise in teens joining into the warfare is happening quickly,
which has now begun to be a problem, because their family is worrying
about their every minute of the time, also a war is not what they have to go
through in their early lives, but then the harsh reality is that the world is not
full of sunshine and rainbows its a tough experience that we all have to go
though but then no one should go though what the syrian people are going
through.
This war is destroying Syria. As people live under the constant threat of
death, their lives are overshadowed. By the way if it was my family member
were going into the war i would honestly be very worried for their safety in
the cursed war in Syria. Lastly my opinion indeed has changed since i begun
this research, it has changed to the morbid fact that people in my age group
are dying in a country that is now riddled with war and violence in almost
every turn of the block in that country, and that the President of Syria and
the extremist groups are not really trying to stop the war which they think
they are doing but, in actuality, they are prolonging it and will not stop until
one of them is gone completely.

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Bibliography
The free dictionary. rebellion. rebellion - definition of rebellion by The Free
Dictionary. definition of rebellion by The Free Dictionary, n.d. Web. 30
October 2014. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rebellion
Philadelphia Inquirer. Saving Syria's history from civil war. Newsela |
Saving Syria's history from civil war. Newsela, 09 25 14. Web. 6
November 2014. https://newsela.com/articles/syria-heritage/id/5334/
The faces of Syrias rebel fighters are getting younger. Newsela | The
faces of Syrias rebel fighters are getting younger. n.p., 09 30 14. Web. 6
November 2014. https://newsela.com/articles/child-rebels/id/5282/
Raja Abdulrahim. More children joining ranks of Syrias desperate rebels.
Newsela | The faces of Syria's rebel fighters are getting younger.

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Newsela, 09 30 14. Web. 14 October 2014.

https://newsela.com/articles/child-rebels/id/5281/
Raja Abdulrahim. More children joining ranks of Syrias desperate rebels.
Newsela | More children joining ranks of Syrias desperate rebels.
Newsela, 09 30 14. Web. 14 October 2014.
https://newsela.com/articles/child-rebels/id/5281/
Saving Syria&s history from civil war. Newsela | Saving Syrias history
from civil war. n.p., 09 25 14. Web. 6 November 2014.
https://newsela.com/articles/syria-heritage/id/5334/
Times, Los Angeles. The faces of Syria's rebel fighters are getting
younger. Newsela | The faces of Syria's rebel fighters are getting
younger. Newsela, 09 30 14. Web. 30 October 2014.
https://newsela.com/articles/child-rebels/id/5282/

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