Not only has death toll been climbing every day but the conflict itself has created a humanitarian problem of unimaginable proportion, as it always happens, displacement, being a by-product of war.
Perhaps it would have been understandable if war is fought between two countries or between races, for one legitimate reason or another, but when war is fought within your own country, killing your own people, making them go elsewhere fearful, hungry and homeless simply because they had had enough of your ruthlessness and wants you to step down and you don’t want to because you think it is God’s given right for you to rule, then something has got to be done.
"What is the world waiting for?" asked one Syrian woman while holed up in a makeshift bomb shelter with her sick son. "For us to die of hunger and fear?"
Indeed, these are echoes of what is being heard in Syria since that fateful day in March 2011 and actions have been made but to no avail.
The United States, the European Union, the Arab League and Turkey are all enforcing sanctions against Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, but the violence has only worsened.
For months the UN and Arab League's special envoy, Kofi Annan, has tried to persuade the Syrian government and his opponents to implement his internationally-backed six-point peace plan.
A U.N. Security Council resolution backing the Arab League’s plan to encourage a post-Assad transition in Syria was vetoed by Russia and China. The veto left many in the international community disgusted and concerned that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad will continue to escalate the killing of civilians.
In fact the veto powers of Russia and China has only emboldened al-Assad in going after the opposition with all the fire power that he has in his resources.
Meanwhile, the unrelenting onetime ragtag militias of the Syrian opposition that has evolve into a more effective Free Syrian Army with the help of some of al-Assad’s high ranking officers who have abandoned him is sustaining their fight against the regime with an increasingly sophisticated network of activists in southern Turkey that is smuggling crucial supplies across the border, including weapons, communications gear, field hospitals and even salaries for soldiers who defect.
The network reflects an effort to forge an opposition movement linking military, governmental and humanitarian organizations, that together can not only defeat the vastly superior military of President Bashar al-Assad, but also replace his government.
The rising sophistication of the effort underscores the evolving nature of the conflict and how control over the north and northwestern areas of the country is slowly slipping away from the government.
Not only that. The conflict is even getting closer to the presidential residence after an explosion at the National Security Bureau in Damascus caused by a suicide attack reportedly killed al-Assad's brother-in-law, the defense minister and a former defense minister.
If that is not bad enough, what is making it worst for al-Assad is that another 600 Syrians reportedly made their way to Turkey recently, and two Syrian brigadier-generals were said to be among the group. According to reports, there are now 20 Syrian generals who have turned their backs on al-Assad.
After this humiliating incident, what the Free Syrian Army is apprehensive about now is that al-Assad’s embattled regime might resort to using chemical weapons
Syria has the “biggest chemical weapons arsenal in the world,” according to Israel’s deputy chief of the general staff, Major General Yair Naveh. Israel has voiced concern about what will happen to them if the Damascus regime falls.
No doubt, the time to intervene in Syria’s conflict, sooner than later, is of the essence.
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