Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS Page #2

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weapons to go into syria.

We can't send the democrats,

the nationalists of the free

Army weapons, because some

of those weapons might get into

The hands of

islamist extremists."

Will mccants:
In the absence

of a major international effort

To build a army to

oppose the assad regime,

A lot of private

individuals in the gulf began

To fund armed groups on

the ground inside of syria.

Ghaith abdul-ahad: Fsa was a

fantastic media labeled term,

But there was no

central authority,

No one could command anyone,

no one could have a one unity

On a frontline.

I would go to a village,

it has five, six militias.

I would come few months later,

they have multiplied into 50,

60 because forming a militia

became a way of getting money.

The amount of money,

the amount of ammunition,

The amount of weapons pumped

into that conflict totally

Destroyed the revolution

and turned it into the

Dynamics of civil war.

Peter bouckaert:
Early in

the war, isis wasn't present.

There was a very

diverse landscape.

So a lot of the

bosnians, and the tunisians,

And the libyans, the more

extreme kind of elements of

Those groups came

on there "el muhadrim."

El muhadrim

means the immigrants,

The foreign fighters.

These groups fought alongside

each other around aleppo.

Ahmed:
Fighters came

3:
00 in the morning,

Sneaked inside aleppo.

Nobody knew

they were coming.

There were just,

like, in every corner,

You could see one fighter.

And then in the morning,

Two tanks started

shooting this neighborhood.

The fsa started shooting it.

They had only this rpg and

it was not enough for that tank.

The second day,

three tanks came.

They destroyed the

first one and then they

Destroyed the last one.

So the one in the

middle, just, like,

Surrendered himself.

Man:
Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

Man:
Allahu akbar!

Ahmed:
In the same day,

when all this happened,

Most of the

people left aleppo and

They went to

the countryside.

Mahmoud al-basha: Hanano

military base was the biggest

Military base for

assad regime in aleppo city.

So when the fsa

took half of the city,

They decided to

attack this military base.

Ahmed:
In this military base,

there were thousands of weapons,

Warehouses

full of weapons.

So many groups,

people I know, friends,

Were going to hanano

military base and they were

Just taking weapons.

Man:
Then the

bombardments started.

Day and night, non-stop.

Sebastian junger: One of

the problems with letting a

Civil war go on

too long is that more

And more people

get involved.

It's a little bit like a

bar fight where all of a sudden,

Everyone's jumped in and is

throwing chairs at each other.

Syria became a civil war

in response to the violence

Of the government.

Eventually, iran got

involved through hezbollah

To support

the assad regime.

The kurds got involved.

Turkey got involved.

The arab gulf

states got involved.

Eventually, all the world

powers and all the regional

Powers had some investment

in the war in syria and in many

Cases were actively

involved in the fighting.

Once you get in a proxy fight,

so many people have such huge

Interests in the outcome that

it's almost impossible to stop.

President obama:
Obviously,

this is a very tough issue.

I have indicated repeatedly

that president al-assad has

Lost legitimacy that

he needs to step down.

So far, he hasn't gotten

the message and instead has

Doubled down in

violence on his own people.

I have, at this point, not

ordered military engagement in

The situation, but we have

been very clear that a red line

For us is we start

seeing a whole bunch of chemical

Weapons moving

around or being utilized.

That would

change my calculus.

That would change.

Robin yassin kassab:

When he said that,

A lot of syrian

revolutionaries were very

Upset because it

seems to be saying that,

"look, you can

use scud missiles,

You can shoot

them down in the street,

You can use warplanes.

Anything is fine

except chemical weapons."

Robin yassin kassab:

Then, of course,

He did use

chemical weapons.

Robin yassin kassab: He killed

1450 people in five hours,

In the

suburbs of damascus.

Men, women, and

children, choking to death.

Senator mccain:
President

of the United States called

Lindsey graham and me

over to the oval office.

Looked us in

the eye and said,

"they've crossed the

line, I'm gonna attack.

I'm gonna degrade

bashar al-assad,

I'm gonna upgrade the

capabilities of the free

Syrian army and I'm

gonna reverse the momentum

On the battlefield."

We emphasized two.

We walked out and there

was the usual cameras and said,

"we're with the

president all the way."

Senator mccain:
I'm sitting

in my office and they're on cnn,

The president

has decided not to.

President obama:
My

fellow americans.

Tonight I wanna

talk to you about syria.

Senator mccain:
That

wasn't just disillusioning

To me and

lindsey graham.

The saudis had planes on

the runway when they found out

President obama:
Because we

cannot resolve someone else's

Civil war through force.

Robin yassin kassab: The

red line disappeared.

There were thousands of

defections in that week.

Thousands of soldiers and,

And officers who'd

be loyal to the regime,

Hadn't dared to jump,

they thought now it's going

To change because the

americans are going to get

Involved and they

defected in that week,

But nothing happened.

Robin yassin kassab: Quite

a few fighters in syria,

Quite a few

revolutionary fighters said,

"look, we're never going

to get help from the west.

This guy can do

anything he wants.

He can kill us all with

any weapons that he can find,

In any way he chooses

and the west is never going

To come to our aid."

Zaidoun al-zoabi: Syria

is just a small triangle that

Is hardly

visible on the world map.

You will see that this

triangle is just like the

Heart of the world and

if this crisis is not solved,

Believe me, everyone

in the world will suffer.

Will mccants:
In 2011,

the syrian civil war

Begins to take root.

At the same time, the

american military finishes its

Withdrawal from iraq.

So, the islamic state has

more freedom of action in iraq

And they begin to look

to syria as a place to give

Themselves some

strategic depth.

Robin yassin kassab: In syria,

it looks like isis is a creation

Of bashar al-assad.

It's a creation of his

scorched earth policy.

Assad had in effect an

undeclared non-aggression

Pact with isis.

And even today, when isis

and the free army are fighting

Each other, assad will

come and bomb the free army.

General flynn:
It's

a cancer that exists.

The islamic

world knows it exists.

The rest of the world

now sees it, feels it,

Is bleeding because of it.

Is terrorized

because of it.

It's not

30,000 guys in syria.

The islamic state

is a global problem.

Christoph reuter: In its

beginning it's an iraqi

Organization, but what they

had for syria was a blueprint,

A very detailed

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