Crazy Syria Stuff Made Simple

"The Spartans do not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are." - Agis II, Spartan King

Syria is really important, but it can also be confusing and difficult to follow even for those of us glued to it.

The most basic answers to your most basic questions. First, a disclaimer: Syria and its history are really complicated; this is not an exhaustive or definitive account of that entire story, just some background, written so that anyone can understand it.

The killing started in April 2011, when peaceful protests inspired by earlier revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia rose up to challenge the dictatorship running the country. The government responded, there is no getting around this, like monsters. First security forces quietly killed activists. Then they started kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing activists and their family members, including a lot of children , dumping their mutilated bodies by the sides of roads. Then military troops began simply opening fire on protests. Eventually, civilians started shooting back.

Syria, Arab Spring Timeline

This Guevara, she is a female sniper fighting in Aleppo, Syria.

Guevara was a 36 years old English teacher, living a normal life of motherhood, until an airstrike hit the family home, and killed her children several months ago, a daughter aged 10 and a son aged seven. From that day on, the war has became personal. As the old loving mother turned into a brand new Guevara, a bad to the bone sniper.

Fighting escalated from there until it was a civil war. Armed civilians organized into rebel groups. The army deployed across the country, shelling and bombing whole neighborhoods and towns, trying to terrorize people into submission. They’ve also allegedly used chemical weapons, which is a big deal. Volunteers from other countries joined the rebels, either because they wanted freedom and democracy for Syria or, more likely, because they are jihadists who hate Syria’s secular government.