I had not realized that in 2011, in the early stages of a popular uprising against him, Al-Assad released a bunch of political prisoners who, if they were not radical when they went into his prisons, were certainly radical when they got out. What many Syrians believe is that by putting on the street people who hated him and who were very violent, the peaceful voices of protest would quickly be drowned out by the radical ones. This would free him to use violence against all of them. That is the theory at any rate.
But roughly a third of Syrians also believe that America created ISIS. Why would this be? As I keep saying, I believe we funneled arms to what became ISIS, and provided them training. This is my gut instinct.
I have been believing this was simply bad policy, but what if creating ISIS were the GOAL? What if the intent was to create an enemy who could then be used to create fear? What if the goal of importing these people in large numbers, knowing many were violent, was as an end game the suppression of the civil liberties of Europeans? You create the fear, and they react like we did after Oklahoma City and 9/11.
Anyone capable of bombing the Murrah building, or destroying 3 skyscrapers in New York, would certainly not balk at such a project.
What if the little boy who did so much to build sympathy for the Syrian cause was drowned ON PURPOSE?
As I try to calm myself down, the world sure as fuck is not doing much to help. Well: I believe I chose this life. I’m going to make of it what I can, using the challenges that present themselves, and I will never quit trying to do so.