Since 2011, Syria has been facing a campaign of international terrorism. This terrorism has nothing to do with the peaceful protests that took place during the Arab Spring. This terrorism isn’t led by human rights activists, “democratic socialists,” Trotskyists, anarchists, or “idealistic youth.” The terrorism that has plagued Syria since 2011 is primarily directed by takfiris. Takfiris are Sunni Muslim extremists who justify the slaughter of other Muslims over religious disagreements.

Many of the groups currently attacking Syria have open links to the networks once led by Osama Bin Laden, commonly called Al-Qaeda. The Al-Nusra Front, the Free Syrian Army, and the wide variety of extremist takfiri factions currently attacking Syria conducted joint training and military operations with the Islamic State (ISIS) organization. In 2014, it is estimated that 50% of the fighters in the Free Syrian Army defected to join ISIS.

These takfiri extremist organizations have been torturing, killing, and slaughtering. Children are abducted by the Syrian “opposition” and forced to fight as child soldiers. The majority of the extremists who have poured into Syria are not Syrian. Fighters from as far away as Malaysia have been arrested by the Syrian government.

The anti-government insurgency in Syria routinely bombs schools, randomly attacks civilians, kidnaps for ransom and engages in other war crimes.

Since 2011, the wave of terrorism that has afflicted Syria has had a disastrous humanitarian toll. It is estimated that over 250,000 people are already dead, with 3 million refugees.

The reason that the anti-government forces in Syria are able to continue their campaign of violence is because of foreign funding. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, and other US-aligned regimes throughout the region have openly facilitated and championed the terrorists of Syria.

Training camps in Jordan, directed by the CIA, train anti-government fighters. The Central Intelligence Agency has already spent $1 billion on training anti-government fighters.

The now infamous ISIS organization is just one faction of a broad variety of religious anti-government extremists in Syria. The Al-Nusra Front, which has been supported by the United States, is almost a clone of ISIS, sharing its goals of creating a sunni caliphate, and slaughtering Christians and Alawites.

The Western Apparatus of Destruction

The horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria, the direct result of the US and its allies funding and supporting the insurgency, has been going on since 2011. The US media has not highlighted this crime against humanity. Instead, US media reports focus on describing Bashar Assad as a “dictator” and playing up the idea that the takfiris are “freedom fighters” against a “brutal regime.”

Syrians are fleeing their country in huge numbers to get away from the campaign of terrorism, directed by the United States and its allies. A refugee crisis has swept Europe. The refugee crisis has escalated in recent weeks, with arsons in Germany and horrific scenes in Hungary.

Suddenly, US media is voicing alarm and concern for Syrian refugees. A photograph of a Syrian toddler on a beach has circulated social media. As the US media now bemoans the Syrian crisis, it does not call for the obvious solution. At no point do major US commentators call for an end to the funding of the anti-government forces in Syria.

The war could end immediately if the United States, France, Britain, Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia were to halt their financial support and facilitation of the anti-government fighters.

Now, US media calls not for a scaling back, but for an escalation of US intervention — the source of the crisis to begin with. The direct meddling of the United States and its allies and their funding of anti-government extremists with the intent of destabilizing and overthrowing the Syrian government caused the crisis.

The crisis created by foreign intervention is being used to justify more intervention.

If one looks at Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya, one can see the direct result of past “humanitarian” “rescue missions” led by the United States and its NATO allies. In none of these countries has the result been stability, peace, or an increase in the living standard.

Western intervention results in chaos, destruction, and continued poverty and violence. This chaos, destruction and continued poverty and violence is then used to somehow justify further intervention. It is a twisted, downward spiral.

The world needs to realize that the Pentagon is not a humanitarian organization, and does not “rescue” anyone. The US military, the NATO military alliance, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union; all of these entities constitute an international apparatus created for the purpose of destruction.

They don’t build. They don’t rescue. They don’t “reconstruct.” They simply destroy.

Caleb Maupin is a political analyst and activist based in New York. He studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.