Note: I wrote this feature on Syria’s civil war to coincide with a new documentary exploring the role that ISIS has played in escalating the conflict. A Thai translation was published in the July 2017 print edition of Premiere, the True Visions customer magazine. Digital editions of Premiere carried the feature in English and Thai.
After more than 6 years of war, Syria may have passed the point of no return.
This month, a new feature-length documentary film explores Syria’s civil war — the events that sparked the conflict, the civilian suffering, and the impact seen after ISIS and other outside forces joined the fighting. “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and The Rise of ISIS” premieres Thursday, 13 July at 21:00 pm on National Geographic Channel (NGC).
The documentary is the work of Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested, whose previous war-time film-making includes 2010’s widely-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated “Restrepo”; and 2013’s “Which Way Is the Front Line from Here?,” which chronicled the life, work and tragic death of British photojournalist Tim Hetherington.
How ISIS topped al-Qaeda
Though al-Qaeda was established many years before ISIS came to be, ISIS can rightly claim to be the larger and more powerful Islamist terror group. ISIS has also been far more skillful in its use of sophisticated marketing strategies and social media tools to spread its hateful ideology and win new recruits to the ISIS cause.
In recent years, ISIS has shifted toward exporting its brand of terror beyond the Middle East by inspiring “freelance” terrorists to carry out deadly attacks in Europe, the UK and North America. ISIS has even adopted Hollywood-style film techniques for its lavish productions of horrific death videos showing prisoners being beheaded, burned alive and pushed off the roofs of tall buildings.
So-called life in Syria
Syria is far from Thailand, so it is difficult for Thais to truly understand the extent to which living conditions have deteriorated for Syria’s civilian population. The most powerful moments from “Hell on Earth” are the scenes of Syrian people telling their personal stories to the camera. Along with these personal stories, the war’s grim statistics reflect the epic scale of war-related destruction:
Death
Nearly 500,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict. And the death toll has accelerated in tandem with the growing presence of ISIS.
Children Victims
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the Syrian conflict is the immense suffering inflicted upon Syria’s children — young victims oftentimes are simply innocent school-age kids, toddlers or new-born babies. And still others were school-children-turned- child-soldiers forced to leave school only to be killed on the field of combat. Last year’s total of more than 650 child-age deaths broke the previous record. Many of the deaths occurred when bombings and chemical weapons attacks were carried out near schools, playgrounds and hospitals.
Refugee Crisis
Before the war, 22 million people lived in Syria; that total is barely above 16 million. In addition to the 500,000 killed, 5 million Syrians became refugees and fled the country to find safety in places like Jordan, Lebanon or Iraq. The number of refugees increased significantly beginning very soon after ISIS joined the fighting. Besides the refugees who’ve fled Syria, another 6 million Syrians were forced to leave their homes and now live as refugees within the country.