If you come to Istanbul, chances are what you will notice almost before anything else, are the Syrian beggars, predominantly women and children. Often, impossibly young children, barely toddlers, curled up on a piece of cardboard on the sidewalk, with a cup in front of them to collect coins. Many of them are now professional beggars; part of an organized network. They are dropped off at their station, and picked up many hours later, and they are expected to meet a certain quota for whoever manages them. Even if they have coats and jackets, they are not given them to wear during their shifts, so that they will elicit more sympathy. So they sit there, tiny children, freezing in the cold and wind and rain.
This is what they have instead of parents and loving homes. Instead of schools, they have a sidewalk. And I wonder where the financiers of “jihad” in Syria are. These are your children. They are the product of your investment. And there are more of them every day. If you see them on the street, do you give them a few liras, or simply congratulate them for the great Islamic victory to which they are contributing?
“I would rather die than live under Bashar al-Assad”.
That’s fine, if that is the equation, but it isn’t.
The equation is “I would rather die and have 470, 000 other people die, and 10 million more people be displaced as refugees, and the entire society destroyed, than for me to live under Bashar al-Assad”.
That is what happens when jihadi leaders tell you that you can defeat a more powerful enemy without having the capability or strategy to do so, by promising you miracles which are not in their possession to deliver. And when they are depending on support from people (the West or their Khaleeji clients) who do not actually want to see you win.
No one doubts the sincerity or phenomenal bravery of the fighters, and no one claims that their cause is not noble and just. If only we lived in a world where that was sufficient.