pcr says this is the explanation of why syria collapsed;

The Fall of Syria Explained

Paul Craig Roberts

I have complained about the difficulty of acquiring an understanding of Syria’s sudden disappearance.  Neither the Western nor Russian media provide a believable account. Recently I came across Finian Cunningham’s article,”Syria after 13 years of US State terrorism,” on the website of the Strategic Culture Foundation. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/12/10/syria-after-13-years-of-us-state-terrorism-what-do-you-expect/  This site is often difficult to access, because Washington stupidly regards it as Russian disinformation.

On the surface Syria’s sudden collapse looks like Syria’s allies, Russia and Iran, might have sold out Syria.  This perception could prevail to the disadvantage of Russia and Iran as reliable allies, but the real explanation is that the years of economic and trade sanctions the West enforced on Syria, the years of Washington’s proxy war against Syria, the foreign occupation of Syria’s oil and wheat provinces by American and Turkish military forces, thus depriving the government of revenues, hollowed out the Syrian economy and left the Syrian military poorly paid for its services. Syria, Cunningham wrote, fell to “a 13-year war of attrition” on which all the victims on both sides were Arabs. The Syrian people, starved of food, medicines and fuel, with over half the population displaced, suffered high inflation and a destroyed currency, and ran out of ability to resist.

I contacted Finian, an international journalist whom I have known for years and learned much that permits me to provide an explanation of Syria’s destruction..........more......