knocking the hell out of isis, we ll be coming out of syria very, very soon. let the other people take care of it now. that was president trump last week on syria, he was said to have surprised his advisors by making the statement, but this week the administration has doubled down saying that u.s. military involvement in the war torn nation is coming to a rapid end. what does that mean for the future of syria and the region. joining me now is an american reporter who has been there from the start. she was covering damascus way back before the war started. her book, no turning back. what is your sense of what would happen if the united states were to withdraw rapidly from syria? well, to start with, it s a
the hell out of isis. we ll be coming out of syria very soon. let the other people take care of it now. that was president trump last week on syria. he was said to have surprised his advisers by making the statement, but this week the administration doubled down, saying that u.s. military involvement in the war-torn nation is coming to a rapid end. what does that mean for the future of syria and the region? joining me now is a brave reporter who was there from the start. ronnie abouzid covered the first protest in damascus all the way back to 2011 before it was a war. she hasn t stopped reporting. her terrific new book is no turning back: life, loss and hope in syria. welcome to the show. thank you, fareed. what do you think would happen if the u.s. were to
bashar al assad broke out on march 15th of 2011. this was about protests against bashar al assad, the regime still in charge. years later families are fleeing their homes because bombs are still falling. with me who has seen the suffering firsthand, rannia is focusing on syria and the author of no turning back, live and loss in war time syria that is now available. to suggest that it is time to leave syria because there are simply a few pocts of isis, ignores t entire reality of the fact this war in syria was not actually started by isis, it was started by the regime of bashar al assad firing guns into peace protesters in 2011. we have lost contact with her.
you tracked four different individuals over six years. you were there for the protests in syria, not knowing what it was going to become. march of 2011, right? yeah. thinking that any day bashar al assad was going to step down. how do you feel like this war, this civil war has changed those individuals that you were following specifically? what did you see in them? their journeys, honestly, one of the reasons i wrote this book is because i had a positive very playing in my head and the movie was full of characters like this. honestly, i don t think hollywood could have scripted some of the story lines in terms on of what happened to some of these people. there are epic, epic journey of six or seven years. let me ask you about one of the major solutions to this conflict that a lot of people always bounce around as abdomen idea. president assad has to step the down from power. it seems like that is unlikely to.happen right now. is that the only way a solution can emerge in this c
at least 1140 people have died in the last 22 days in eastern ghouta, including 402 women and children. joining us now, a journalist and author of the new book no turning back life, loss and hope in wartime syria. that is out today. great to have you with us here. thank you. on set. there s so many different nations now involved in this conflict in syria. sometimes for us here in the west, it s hard found or wrap our head around it. how did this become such a global proxy war? because of syria s geopolitical position, it was allied to iran and to russia. and the syrian so on the one side, you have iran and russia and lebanese is backing the assad regime. then you have the gulf state, saudi arabia, turkey on the other side with the backing of the u.s. and europe. so it s a proxy war and it s a battlefield for so many different nations. i want to talk a little bit about your book.