The sudden upsurge in the attacks on Aleppo by joint Assad and Russian forces suggest that an end game plan is unfolding. One dare not think of the suffering beneath these bombardments nor of the humanitarian disaster it all represents. Yet there is a temptation to feel that any ending is better than waiting for a better one by prolonging the war.
The West is not blameless in all of this. By intervening in Libya and toppling Gaddafi it unwittingly encouraged a Sunni uprising driven by the so called Arab Spring. The Sunnis imagined the West would put up a no fly zone over Syria and bomb Assad forces. But the public in the West had become disenchanted with interventions which led to yet more fighting. Instead it encouraged a motley collection of mostly exiled Syrians to organize a fantasy government in waiting, which would never have had the backing of the majority in Syria and which could never agree on anything. We do not have to go on with this sorry tale because we know it all too well. One can only hope it ends soon. The aftermath will last a generation. Perhaps we can learn at least one lesson. In the modern world civil wars do not work. They unleash forces nobody can control and they never end.