Over the past two weeks, I have heard many Syrians say they want to be left alone to try to rebuild their country.
It sounds like a pipe dream.
The war destroyed much of the country, but it also stripped Syria of its sovereignty.
Bashar Assad became a client of Iran and Russia and fled the country when they stopped supporting him.
The US is in the northeast to hunt down the remnants of the Islamic State and protect its Kurdish allies.
Turkey controls most of the northwest and has its own Arab-led militia.
There are indications that the Turks, who have close ties to HTS, are preparing a new attack on the Syrian Kurds, who have close ties to Kurdish separatists inside Turkey.
Israel, now as aggressive as it has been in years, has made the most overt use of the power vacuum it has seen in Syria.
It continues to bomb the remnants of the state’s military infrastructure and seize more Syrian territory to add to the Golan Heights, which they have occupied since 1967.
The Israelis, as always, justify their actions with self-defense.
The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told me that Israel’s actions were “irresponsible.” According to him, Israel should not act in such a way as to “destabilize this very, very delicate transitional process.”
