Syria’s Deadly Peace: When Yesterday’s Wars Kill in Today’s Calm
The war in Syria may have receded from headlines, but its lethal legacy continues to claim lives in a cruel reminder that conflicts never truly end when the shooting stops.
The Invisible Battlefield
The death of a Syrian Public Security officer from an exploding war remnant represents a grim reality facing post-conflict societies worldwide. Syria, after more than a decade of devastating civil war, has become a vast minefield of unexploded ordnance (UXO), where rockets, shells, and bombs from various phases of the conflict lie dormant, waiting to unleash their destructive power on unsuspecting victims. This latest incident underscores how the country’s security forces, tasked with maintaining order in a fragile peace, face dangers not just from active combatants but from the ghostly remnants of battles long past.
A Generation Living Among Bombs
The tragedy extends far beyond this single incident. According to humanitarian organizations, Syria has one of the highest contamination rates of explosive remnants in the world, with an estimated 10.2 million people living in areas contaminated by explosive hazards. Children who have known nothing but war now play in fields and ruins where death lurks beneath the surface. Farmers cannot till their land, families cannot return to their homes, and entire communities remain frozen in displacement, not because of active fighting, but because of the explosive legacy that makes normal life impossible.
The international community’s response to this crisis has been woefully inadequate. While billions have been spent on military operations and humanitarian aid during active conflict phases, the less dramatic but equally deadly work of clearance and victim assistance receives a fraction of the attention and resources. Syria’s UXO problem is compounded by the complexity of its conflict, with munitions from multiple actors – government forces, various rebel groups, international coalitions, and terrorist organizations – creating a deadly patchwork that will take decades to clear.
The Economics of Endless War
Beyond the immediate human cost, unexploded ordnance represents a massive impediment to Syria’s recovery and reconstruction. Agricultural lands remain unusable, infrastructure projects stall due to contamination risks, and the constant threat of explosions deters investment and the return of displaced populations. The cost of clearance – estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars – pales in comparison to the economic losses from leaving vast swaths of the country unsafe and unproductive. Yet in a bitter irony, the same international community that found resources for military intervention struggles to fund the patient, dangerous work of making Syria safe for its own people.
Redefining Post-Conflict Recovery
This incident forces us to reconsider what “post-conflict” truly means. For the family of the killed officer and his injured colleague, the war is not over – it has simply taken a different form. The international legal frameworks and humanitarian protocols developed for active conflicts often fail to address the long tail of war’s impact. Syria’s experience should prompt a fundamental rethinking of how we approach conflict resolution and peacebuilding, recognizing that the end of active hostilities is merely the beginning of a much longer journey toward genuine safety and recovery.
As the world’s attention shifts to new crises and conflicts, Syria’s deadly ground serves as a sobering reminder that our moral and practical obligations to war-torn societies extend far beyond ceasefire agreements and peace treaties. The question remains: will the international community learn from Syria’s ongoing tragedy, or will we continue to repeat the pattern of intense engagement during conflict followed by neglect during the even more challenging work of building a safe peace?
