All language subtitles for Hell.on.Earth.The.Fall.of.Syria.and.the.Rise.of.Isis.2017.WEBRip.x264-ION10

.

NARRATOR: When a
society collapses into
anarchy and violence,

civilians inevitably take
matters into their own hands.

They form armed militias.

They put up
checkpoints and roadblocks.

They kill or expel anyone in
the area who might threaten

their grip on power.

Hussein,
bring the rocket.

NARRATOR: In that
kind of environment,

radical ideologies are almost
guaranteed to take hold.

Radicalism
depends on desperation.

It depends on grievance.

And it then provides its
own harsh answers to the

corruption and the violence
that afflict much of the world.

.

Fakhoury!
Fakhoury died.

NARRATOR: People will always
turn to radicalism once they

have exhausted
every other option.

.

NARRATOR: They have to.

Their very
survival is at stake.

.

I'm one of
the freedom boys in Daraa.

We watched the protests and
calls for freedom in Egypt and
Tunisia.

So we wrote this by ourselves.
Nobody told us to write this.

We wrote this: "Your turn
next, doctor ."

The next day, in the
morning, the security
forces were in school.

Some kids told them
who wrote the graffiti.

They said,"Who told you
to write this?" And then
they took all my friends.

The next day, they came
at 4 a.m. and took me from
home, in front of my family.

"We are coming.
Down with the regime."

I was 15 years old,
I was young.

They took me and tortured me.
There were many
methods of torture.

They used electric rods
and hung us up on the wall.

We were just kids and they
detained and tortured us.

Imagine what
they do to adults.

When we heard
the kids were being tortured...

...we decided to go to
the head of security,
to solve this problem.

Atef Najib received us
with insults and humiliation.

PROTESTORS:
Down with Atef Najib!

Down with Atef Najib!

At first it wasn't
a revolutionary movement.

They weren't calling for
the fall of the regime or the

execution of the president.

Get our
children out of prison!

It was very simple.

"We want our
children to be released."

They were
calling for dignity,

which is important in a
country where people were used

to being humiliated
and pushed around.

.

It's really remarkable
the degree to which corruption

has played an important
role in driving a variety of

security crises that had been
breaking out in the last

five to ten years.

Every single one of the
Arab Spring revolutions was

explicitly an
anti-corruption revolution.

These were countries run by
extremely sophisticated and

successful
criminal organizations.

The people who are paid to
uphold the law are the

very ones violating it.

It's humiliating.

Tunisia catches fire.

Libya catches fire.

Egypt catches fire.

Bashar al-Assad
looks at that and says,

"I'll be damned."

So he was willing to respond
to peaceful demonstrations

with maximal use of force.

.

.

.

Get a car!

Get a car!

The bet that he made was
"There's, at this point,

no compromising
with this movement so if

I wanna stay in power,
I have to absolutely
take it to the limit."

.

Very quickly we got
into this cycle of protests

that were met by gunfire which
led to funerals the next day.

.

The funerals
became bigger protests.

The demands, then,
began to get bigger.

Social justice and freedom,
an end to corruption.

The regime responded again
with more and more violence.

ZAIDOUN :
I participated in
demonstrations and I was

detained twice afterwards.

In that jail, I witnessed at
least the death of 80 people

who died just
because of the conditions.

There was no oxygen,
there was no medicine.

There was no space for you.

You can't sleep.
There's no sleep.

Wardens did not
have to beat us.

We used to do
it to each other.

You know, just like a
couple of rats put in a

small, small, small
space, and we were,

we were just
biting each other.

It is a factory of terrorism.

You would go inside as
an ordinary person and
leave as a terrorist.

The people demand
the downfall of the regime.

I was almost 16, 17
when the revolution started.

I wanted to do something.

I mean, I wanted to
participate in demonstrations.

I wanted these
things to stop.

.

That night, I
tried to prevent them.

I told them you are young and
we don't know yet how will the

regime behave against you.

I was afraid they will shoot.

They will shoot.

.

I tried, but they
insisted so I told them

"Okay, I will be
in front of you.

I will be the first, but you
have to follow my instructions."

.

They're attacking.

.

If God gave me
1,000 years to live,

I will never
forget that sound.

.

When you
see such sufferings,

there is no childhood.

So many of my
friends were killed.

And this is the hardest thing,
hardest thing, you know.

Before, we
wanted many things,

we wanted to change, but
now we just want peace,

you know, for, stop
killing children, I mean.

Stop killing innocent people.

Mr. President,
Human Rights Watch,

for example, 30th of
January this year,

has said that forces loyal
to Bashar al-Assad

"Have deliberately and viciously
attacked civilians in

opposition-held areas
using indiscriminate weapons."

No, there's no
indiscriminate weapons.

When you, when
you shoot, you aim,

and when you shoot, when you
aim you aim at terrorists in

order to protect civilians.

Again, if you're talking
about casualty, that's war.

You cannot have
war without casualty.

.

.

The
regime wanted a war.

This sounds strange.

Why on earth
would any regime,

or government, or state
provoke a war against itself?

May God
curse you Bashar!

You're a dog and scum!

.

The regime knew very
well that it couldn't survive

a genuine reform process.

If there was a
real reform process,

one thing would
lead to another.

There would, there would be
more and more transparency,

more and more
crimes would be exposed,

and in the end, at best, the
president and his top officers

would have ended up in prison
stripped of their stolen wealth.

They thought that in
a military conflict, in a war,

they could win because
they had done it before.

Under Hafez al-Assad, the
father of Bashar in 1982,

they used artillery, they
used aerial bombardment,

they probably used
chemical weapons,

and they killed
somewhere between
10,000 and 40,000 people,

and the memory of that
terror kept the Syrian people

silent until 2011.

.

I owned a shop.

And I owned a car.

I was living well.

I was happy.

But Bashar al-Assad did
not let anyone enjoy Syria.

As soon as people rose up and
said, "Down with Assad"...

He started his airstrikes
and fought everyone.

"It's me or I
wipe out the country."

From the first day of the
revolution, they
wrote on the walls...

"It's Assad or we
burn up the country."

This is the dining room.

We're having dinner now,
thanks to God.

.

As you see,
this is our food supply.

This is breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.

Damn you, Bashar al-Assad.

Do you
like Bashar al-Assad?

Nah.

Why?

Because he is bombing us.

-Because
he is bombing us?
-Yeah.

Because he's a dog!

You don't
like him either?

No.

.

Daddy,
is the plane bombing?

Yes, it's bombing.

Mom.

Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid, sweetie.

.

Dad, I want
to sleep next to you.

Don't be afraid,
don't be afraid.

Come here!

My eldest son is
now seven years old.

He didn't go to
nursery school.

He never opened a book
or learned the alphabet.

He never saw a school.

He's heard that
there are schools.

And that there are books.

But he hasn't seen them.

Daddy, daddy.

Yes, my love.

.

Honestly,
I'm about to explode.

I can't express what's
happening inside of me.

I have to smile against my will
so the kids don't get scared.

.

I'm announcing that
I'm defecting with some factions
from Bashar's brute army.

I was an officer in the
Syrian Arab army.

.... with the
rank of colonel.

We had no choice.

We either kill our family
and our people...

...or split from the
regime's army and join
the blessed revolution.

REPORTER : Pictures
have emerged today apparently

showing members of the
Syrian army defecting to

join protesters in
the City of Homs.

ROBIN :
You have a growing number
of local volunteers and

a growing number of military
defectors who were joining

together to form into hundreds
of self-defense militias which

eventually all came together
under the umbrella titled,

"The Free Syrian Army."

May the peace, mercy and
blessings of Allah be with you.

We are announcing the formation
of the Free Syrian Army ...

...to cooperate together
with the people to attain
freedom and dignity...

...to remove the regime, and
protect the Syrian revolution.

AHMED :
These groups the FSA had
in Aleppo at that time

were really helpful.

Once in Salaheddin, I
was demonstrating in there.

.

.

People start just
falling on the ground that,

from shooting from the regime.

They closed the road on us.

.

We're unable
to reach the victims!

.

And then,
like out of nothing,

like angels, somebody shoot
the thugs and they fell and

they were able to escape.

We're al-Farouk
troop from the Free Syrian Army.

We came on the date
November 5th, 2011...

...to protect the peaceful
protesters and peaceful
civilians, in Baba Omar city.

.

The FSA rose
spontaneously ...

to defend demonstrations and
defenseless people.

So it has no ideology except
to topple Bashar al-Assad's
regime.

So people can regain their
freedom and their dignity.

To have democratic government
and a secular country.

And for justice to
prevail in the country.

-Takbir!
-Allahu Akbar!

The propaganda
of the regime was

"We are not confronted
with a local revolution
of people who demand rights.

No, we are confronted
with a foreign-funded
jihadi movement."

Actually, a lot of
the jihadists were released by

the Syrian Regime in the very
early stage of the conflict.

There was an amnesty which
allowed a lot of people with

very nasty records to be
freed from custody in Syria.

It was a
strategy of survival.

The regime thought
enough people in the outside

world would be scared away
from the revolution by the

size of these bearded,
working-class men
with Kalashnikovs

and they were right.

And America, in 2011,
2012, they were saying,

"We can't allow
weapons to go into Syria.

We can't send the democrats,
the nationalists of the
Free Army weapons,

because some of
those weapons might get into

the hands of
Islamist extremists."

In the absence of a
major international effort to

build a army to
oppose the Assad regime,

a lot of private individuals
in the Gulf began to fund

armed groups on the
ground inside of Syria.

FSA was a
fantastic media labeled term,

but there was no
central authority,

no one could command anyone,

no one could have a
one unity on a frontline.

I would go to a village,
it has five, six militias.

I would come
few months later,

they have multiplied into 50,
60 because forming a militia

became a way of getting money.

The amount of money,
the amount of ammunition,

the amount of weapons pumped
into that conflict totally

destroyed the revolution
and turned it into the
dynamics of Civil War.

Tawhid front
in Aleppo has been founded.

To unite all troops,
and its military work
under Tawhid front.

Praise be to God.

We announce,
as a group of defected
officers and soldiers...

...as revolutionaries...

...the formation of the
Gond Al-Harmayn front.

We will
brutally defeat...

...whoever violates
innocent civilians...

...regardless of their
background or religion.

.

Early in the
war, ISIS wasn't present.

There was a very
diverse landscape.

So a lot of the
Bosnians, and the Tunisians,

and the Libyans, the more
extreme kind of elements of

those groups came under
"El Muhadrim."

El Muhadrim
means the immigrants,

the foreign fighters.

These groups fought alongside
each other around Aleppo.

There were huge
numbers of dead victims in
one of the demonstrations.

So we decided to
enter the city of Aleppo...

...and liberate it to
protect these demonstrations...

...and to protect the people
from the attacks of this regime.

Fighters came
3:00 in the morning,

sneaked inside Aleppo.

Nobody knew they were coming.

There were just,
like, in every corner,

you could see one fighter.

.

And then in the morning,
two tanks started shooting
this neighborhood.

.

The FSA started shooting it.

They had only this RPG and it
was not enough for that tank.

The second day,
three tanks came.

.

They destroyed the
first one and then they
destroyed the last one.

So the one in
the middle, just, like,

surrendered himself.

Allahu akbar!

The FSA takes
over a tank and drives it in
the heart of Aleppo City!

Allahu akbar!

Allahu akbar!

In the same
day, when all this happened,

most of the people left
Aleppo and they went
to the countryside.

.

I left my house
in Aleppo with my children,
with our clothes, not alone.

I was one of the lucky
ones for leaving with my kids.

Some people lost their
children while leaving.

I still
remember the situation.

I'm thinking of a
word to describe it.

It's something indescribable.

A plane can come at
any time and you might die.

And then they bury you and
that's it. You're gone.

Do you fear death?

No, we aren't
afraid of dying. We're
afraid for the kids.

When they see
their mother afraid...

...they get scared like her.

It's a normal occurrence now.

It's a gloomy situation.

When the plane approaches,
we raise the TV volume...

...or one of us gets louder,
so that no one gets scared.

.

.

Hanano military base
was the biggest military base

for Assad Regime
in Aleppo City.

So when the FSA
took half of the city,

they decided to
attack this military base.

.

.

.

We're coming to
your palace next, Bashar.

And we'll step on your head.

Wait for us.

In this military base,
there were thousands of weapons,

warehouses full of weapons.

So many groups,
people I know, friends,

were going to Hanano
military base and they were

just taking weapons.

In less than
one week, we liberated
around 70% of Aleppo City.

And with very basic,
light weapons and
very small resources.

.

Then the
bombardments started.

Day and night nonstop.

.

Come on. Let's go.

.

We are heading
toward the area of the bombing.

Move toward the western
neighborhood and check if
there are bombs around you.

The suffering
in this city doesn't stop.

The Civil Defense
are young volunteers.

It was a really
primitive idea.

Just to help
people who were bombed...

...while they went to get
bread for their families.

If they are alive,
we rescue them.

If they are dead, we
return them to their family.

Where are my kids?

Where are my kids?

Where are my kids?

My kids were in the building!

Hey guys!
A second airplane!

.

.

Lift her up.

Lift her up.

.

.

NARRATOR:
One of the problems with
letting a Civil War

go on too long is that more
and more people get involved.

.

It's a little bit like a bar
fight where all of a sudden,

everyone's jumped in and is
throwing chairs at each other.

Syria became a Civil War in
response to the violence of

the government.

Eventually, Iran got involved
through Hezbollah to support

the Assad regime.

The Kurds got involved.

Turkey got involved.

The Arab Gulf
States got involved.

Eventually, all the world
powers and all the regional

powers had some investment in
the War in Syria and in many

cases were actively
involved in the fighting.

.

Once you get in
a proxy fight,

so many people have such huge
interests in the outcome that

it's almost
impossible to stop.

.

Obviously, this
is a very tough issue.

I have indicated repeatedly
that President Al-Assad has

lost legitimacy, that
he needs to step down.

So far, he hasn't gotten
the message and instead

has doubled down in
violence on his own people.

I have, at this point,

not ordered military
engagement in the situation,

but we have been very
clear that a red line

for us is we start seeing
a whole bunch of chemical

weapons moving
around or being utilized.

That would
change my calculus.

That would change...

When he said that, a
lot of Syrian revolutionaries

were very upset because it
seems to be saying that,

"Look, you can
use scud missiles,

you can shoot them
down in the street,

.

you can use warplanes.

Anything is fine
except chemical weapons."

Let me
tell you one thing.

When you kill people
with barrel bombs or chemicals,
what is the difference?

You are killing people.

Why do you think about
chemicals when you don't
think about barrel bombs?

Thousands and thousands
of barrel bombs every day.

Just only today 40 barrel bombs.
Where's Obama?

ROBIN :
Then, of course, he did
use chemical weapons.

We're in one of
the eastern parts of Ghouta.

They're all civilians,
they're all civilians,
they're all kids.

There's a woman who died
with her husband and kids.

They died because of the
regime's chemical attack.

Because of chemical gas,
and particularly Sarin gas.

They're all unknown.
They're marked with a
number on their forehead.

This woman is looking
for her dead child.

Over here.

She found her.
Lord have mercy.

He killed
1,450 people in five hours,

in the suburbs of Damascus.

Men, women, and
children, choking to death.

President of the
United States called

Lindsey Graham and me
over to the Oval Office.

Looked us in
the eye and said,

"They've crossed the line.
I'm gonna attack.

I'm gonna degrade
Bashar al-Assad,

I'm gonna upgrade
the capabilities of
the Free Syrian Army

and I'm gonna reverse the
momentum on the battlefield."

We emphasized to...

We walked
out and there was the usual
cameras and said,

"We're with the
President all the way."

Obama...
he had a problem.

Am I 100% sure that
it was the regime?

If not, I won't take the risk.

And secondly, if I
do take the risk...

...to intervene...

...where, how, and
to whose benefit?

We, the French...

...the British...

...and the Americans...

...we started preparing,
this was in August 2013...

...a big reaction
against Bashar...

But at the last moment,
when everything was ready...

...a few hours before
the intervention,
President Obama told us...

...that in the end he'd
thought it through...

...and didn't wish to follow
through with the operation
against Bashar.

I'm sitting in my
office and there on CNN,

the President has
decided not to...

My fellow Americans.

Tonight I wanna talk
to you about Syria.

That wasn't
just disillusioning to
me and Lindsey Graham.

The Saudis had planes on
the runway when they

found out watching CNN.

Because we cannot
resolve someone else's

Civil War through force.

The red
line disappeared.

There were thousands of
defections in that week.

Thousands of soldiers and,
and officers who'd be loyal to

the regime,
hadn't dared to jump,

they thought now it's going to
change because the Americans

are going to get involved and
they defected in that week,

but nothing happened.

The
moderate opposition...

...felt completely betrayed.

They said,"There is an
opportunity to weaken
Bashar and no one seizes it."

Quite a few
fighters in Syria,

quite a few
revolutionary fighters said,

"Look, we're never going
to get help from the West.

This guy can do
anything he wants.

He can kill us all with
any weapons that he can find,

in any way he chooses and
the West is never going
to come to our aid."

.

.

Syria is just a
small triangle that is hardly

visible on the world map.

You will see that this
triangle is just like the

heart of the world and if
this crisis is not solved,

believe me, everyone in
the world will suffer.

In 2011, The Syrian
Civil War begins to take root.

At the same time, the
American military finishes its

withdrawal from Iraq.

So, the Islamic state has
more freedom of action in Iraq

and they begin to look to
Syria as a place to give

themselves some
strategic depth.

In Syria, it looks
like ISIS is a creation of

Bashar al-Assad.

It's a creation of his
scorched earth policy.

Assad had in effect an
undeclared non-aggression
pact with ISIS.

And even today, when ISIS
and the Free Army are
fighting each other,

Assad will come and
bomb the Free Army.

Originally, the Islamic
State was related to al-Qaeda.

When they split from
al-Qaeda, it wasn't because
of different doctrines.

They split from al-Qaeda because
of political legitimacy...

...and just how to deal
with the frontlines.

So, they are two
sides of the same coin.

It's a
cancer that exists.

The Islamic World
knows it exists.

The rest of the
world now sees it,

feels it, is
bleeding because of it.

Is terrorized because of it.

It's not 30,000
guys in Syria.

The Islamic State
is a global problem.

In its beginning
it's an Iraqi organization,

but what they had for
Syria was a blueprint,

a very detailed plan,
step A, B, C, D,

how to colonize a
foreign country.

The first phase was training
camps where they form a hybrid

army from the incoming
people from Tunisia,

Egypt, Daghestan, Germany
who didn't even have one
common language.

Praise Allah who
provided us with these acts of
worship- immigration and jihad.

These brothers immigrated
recently and they're now in
the training camp.

It's an
absolutely loyal army with
no local affiliations.

And then, locally to
know who is who in the
respective villages,

they started to open Da'wah
offices, missionary offices.

And they did so in
many, many places.

In Tal Rifaat, in Mar'a,
in al-Dana, in Mayadin,

in Deir ez-Zor, in Manbij.

And so, slowly,
slowly, slowly,

they knew exactly what is the
composition of this community.

Whom we could buy,
whom we have to kill?

First, they did this secretly.

Then, only, once they
felt powerful enough,

they would, with
lightning stroke,

take over a
particular village.

.

.

.

.

Daesh came in
with such a force, it was scary.

Religious practice
started immediately.

I mean, prayer, torture,
imposition of Sharia law.

God
blessed us with this victory...

...taking over the
city of Manbij....

...from the Free Syrian Army.

May God damn all of them.

May God bless us with the
opportunity to behead them.

Today, we went
to Manbij and saw the heads of
two men hung in the square.

-Today?
-Yes.

Oh my God.

Were they old?

They were young.
18 or 20 years old.

And there was a man in a cage.
He was howling like a dog.

Why?

They say nobody is put
in the cage except for dogs.

What did he do?
Was he smoking or what?

He was
smoking and they beat him.

All the Syrians will
have their turns. We'll all be
put in the cages and will howl.

ISIS MILITANT:
We advise everyone...
We advise everyone...

...to fear and respect God.

Be careful with your tongue.

You might say a word
that would bring you
into hell for 70 years.

Don't listen to them!

I swear to God I didn't do it.

Oh God!

I swear to God I didn't do it!

God is great!

So the beheadings were
the horror that silenced people.

Because if you protested,
you'd be hung up for three or
four days.

They gather everyone and
force them to watch it.

So they witness
the beheadings...

...and the victims hang for
three days in a public square
in high traffic areas.

So everyone gets terrified.

If you do anything, this
is what happens to you.

For me, Christian, Armenian,
Jewish... no problem.

They do their thing,
and I do mine.

This is our religion.

You can't just call someone
an infidel and behead them.

I teach my children
that our religion is
one of forgiveness.

I mean, I don't want
my son to be strict.

It became scary.
Imagine you're at a mosque...

...if an ISIS member entered,
everyone gets scared.

If you argue or anything,
you might get beheaded.

What they're doing is
saying this system is so rotten,

it's so thoroughly
rotten that the only way

to improve it is by
fire and blood.

.

The public display
of horrific violence against

individuals is something which
goes way back in history and

every culture has
done it at some time or,

or the other.

In Britain, they used to
hang, draw, and quarter.

In China, they were
dragged into the street
and beaten to death.

In France, women who had
slept with German soldiers,

had their hair cut off and
were beaten in the streets,

stripped naked and paraded.

In the United States, people
would take their wives and

their children along to the
lynching of the black man and

then they'd stand there
and smile and have their

photograph taken
next to his corpse.

This display of public
violence was seen as a

necessary part of government
in order to send the message

out into society.

"We can do
anything we like with you.

Don't resist us because we
have total power to do the

most horrific things
and there's nothing you
can do about it."

NARRATOR: All societies are
blind to their own violence.

From the use of
napalm in Vietnam,

to the bombing
of German cities,

to the use of
nuclear weapons in Japan,

The United States has killed
far more civilians than

ISIS ever could.

In World War II alone, Allied
forces are thought to have

killed around one
million civilians.

We're focused on the
wrongdoing of other groups.

It's an adaptive trait that's
probably hardwired into the

brain because it
has survival value.

Either you're with us
or you're with the terrorists.

NARRATOR: It allows us to
demonize the enemy who we may

have to fight and to avoid
the moral conflict that
comes with killing.

.

When the United States
invaded Iraq,

they killed tens of
thousands of innocent people.

You can't do that and imagine
there won't be consequences.

By early 2003, the
majority of Iraqis were happy

to see the back
of Saddam Hussein.

.

There is
excitement, there is hope,

there is a degree of anxiety.

I remember two days
after the fall of Baghdad,

people were talking about, "Why
are the Americans aggressive?"

"Why are they pointing
their guns at the people
in the street?"

Saddam had committed
massacres within the society,

enormous levels of violence,
but you couldn't see it.

Within the
American occupation,

violence is televised.

Pictures of the Americans
putting bags on the head of

people and sitting
them behind barbed wire,

forcing people to be naked,
humiliating people.

The loss of their
credibility was enormous,

they could have paved the
Iraqi roads in gold and still

they can do the
humiliation of Abu Ghraib.

There was a burning American
armored vehicle in Haifa
street in Baghdad.

As I'm walking I hear,
see two small helicopters.

They fire a rocket into the
crowd that was celebrating

around the burning vehicle.

.

I run towards the scene and I
see this circle with a young boy

stunned, missing leg, a pool
of blood and some liquids.

Other people
scattered in the middle.

They're not screaming,
they're not wailing,

the injured people are silent,
the silence of shock.

The helicopters come again,
they fire another rocket

into the crowd.

I'm trying to be as thin
as the curb, you know,

and then you realize
there is people left in

the middle of the road.

There's this guy who was
injured in the first attack

and then was hit again.

He raises himself,
he looks around,

he falls, stretches his arm,

and still waits.

No one can help him,
no one can do anything.

The helicopters were gone,
but everyone was
mortified with fear.

Violence by the end
of 2003, early 2004,

is a normal fact of society.

When you see body
parts in the street,

when you see pieces of
flesh hanging from a tree,

when you see children killed
because they were playing in

the middle of the road,
I don't think there is

difference in horror between
seeing children just being hit

by an American rocket
with their limbs scattered,

with their, with their legs
oozing these fluids in the

middle of the street of
Baghdad and seeing someone,

you know, executed by ISIS.

You don't equate
the two parties,

but from the perspective of
someone who lost his leg
or lost his father,

there is no good violence
and bad violence.

It is very important
for people to understand just

how much what is happening in
Syria today is related to what

happened in Iraq
over a decade ago.

Iraq under Saddam Hussein
was a Sunni ruled country with

both the Kurdish and the Shia
majority that suffered very

significantly at the hands
of that Sunni dominance.

Whether you agree or not with
the military intervention,

the main failures were not
the military intervention.

It's the de-ba'athification
of the country which

completely marginalized
the Sunni population.

I am today
establishing an Iraqi
De-Ba'athification Council.

I was an occupation
commander with all of the

responsibilities that
went along with that,

which essentially meant
running part of Iraq,

firing the Ba'ath party, casting
them on the ash heap of history,

created tens
of thousands of Iraqis,

including the
most educated and,

and influential in
various Sunni-Arab communities

especially, whose incentive
now was to oppose the new Iraq

rather than to support it.

Huge mistake.

It didn't make sense
to do this kind of wide-scaled

de-ba'athification
when within Iraq itself,

if you wanted to be a teacher,
you wanna get a job,

you had to join
the Ba'ath Party.

So, you know, you, it's,
it's a little bit like
the de-nazi-fication.

You, not everyone was, you know,

part of shaping a repressive
regime that suppressed

everybody else.

When the
Sunni Arabs found out...

...that the moderates among
them were being targeted...

What are their
chances in life?

Their only choice is to turn
to extremism and violence.
And that's what happened.

The Sunnis were
oppressed by the Americans,

by the Shi'a
government of Iraq.

ISIS comes and
promises liberation,

promises the end of that,
promises bringing back the

Sunni's pride that they've
lost from 2003 and bringing

them back into control.

Some ISIS leaders
had been in Saddam's army.
They were in the Baath Party.

Most of the people from the
Baath Party ended up fighting
with the Islamic State.

If you called
something Ba'athi
nobody would follow,

but once they discovered,

"Hey, if you, if we say that
we fight in the name of Islam,

in the name of Jihad
against the foreign occupiers,

we have something
that resonates."

If you want
security, then fear Allah.

If you want sustenance,
then fear Allah.

If you want a noble life,
then fear Allah.

And perform jihad
to seek God's path.

.

.

Their
propaganda owes a lot to
Hollywood action films

and to computer games that
kids grow up on these days.

ISIS knows that if they make
a high production video shot

from various angles, if
they get a white guy,

put him in a Guantanamo
style orange jumpsuit,

they get a child or an English
speaker to cut his head off

with a knife, they
know that that night,

maybe the film will not
be shown on mainstream TV,

but they know that the story
of the film will be headline

news everywhere in the world.

There is breaking news
tonight of a chilling new

ISIS propaganda video.

REPORTER : The
men believed to be Syrian
were shackled and

dressed in jumpsuits.

REPORTER : The video
shows the Egyptian prisoners
being marched

onto a beach by
militants dressed in black

then the prisoners
are beheaded brutally.

Nobody will be talking
about Assad on the same day he

may have incinerated 100
people in barrel bombs,

but we don't see
those people dying.

We've, nobody has made a
high-production video of it

and followed it up with
a threat to the West.

.

It's
very effective at striking
fear into the hearts

of their enemies because the
prospect of being captured by

these people is too
horrific to contemplate.

Melody was the
identity of the Facebook
account I created...

...to follow the escalating
jihadist propaganda.

I had about a hundred
virtual friends on that
Facebook account.

And so, if I become Melody
again... I was observing a lot,
but not interacting.

I can't see you that well.

I can hear you well but
I see you so so.

Until the moment when
a high-ranking Daesh
soldier...

...started talking to me
one night on Facebook.

In a very simple way...
like any two teens would
meet on Facebook.

This was someone who had cut
his teeth during the first
US invasion of Iraq.

And before that, he had been
fighting jihad in Afghanistan.

So I knew that I was
dealing with someone fervent...

...who, after a long
time with al-Qaeda...

...had decided to join ISIS.

Look at me.
Here, Allah makes it easy
for me every day.

Apartments... I have plenty of
apartments whenever I want.

I have cars whenever I want.

If I want money, I can get it
whenever I want. You get it?

It's not a struggle anymore.

The way they use
social media sites like

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
and messenger services is so

incredibly sophisticated.

They have a type of
member that only engage
in online Jihad.

This is the place where
they spread the ideology,

where they recruit.

You know, 6900
Westerns have gone to join.

So, you know, it's not
an insignificant number.

Some of these kids who
are joining, you know,

they're leading pretty
humdrum lives in

Belgium, France,
London, United States,

and they're joining ISIS and

they're part of something
bigger than themselves
and it's exciting.

If you're the type
of girl that leaves, as we've
unfortunately witnessed a lot...

...because she thinks
she will marry a hero...

...a warrior,
someone that's strong...

...a figure that
never shows fear.

They simply tell that girl
that she will get married
to a super jihadist.

I assure you that if I was
really Melody, if I was
really a 20 year old girl...

...if I was really
living a chaotic or
unstable type of life...

I would have left
for Syria like that.

In 15 days.

I was not familiar
with how the Islamic State

thinks about Islam
.

It's not the real Islam.

They tell them
...

"You're joining
to help Muslims..."

"... to serve Islam..."

"... because God is
asking you to..."

It's pure brainwashing.

They do it to anyone
who wants to come here.

And unfortunately, with some
of them, it really works.

Can I ask you a question?

Go ahead,
I'm listening.

Do you know how
many infidels you've killed?

Sincerely,
I've done some damage.

The men who run the
Islamic State are rough men.

For all of its pretense to
be a religious organization,

uh, and all its
quotation of scripture,

when you look at how they
behave as an organization,

um, in many ways,
uh, it resembles, uh,

the rough and tumble politics
of a criminal organization.

They put hits out on people,
they extort people,

raising millions of dollars
a year by these activities.

Daesh interfered
in every aspect of life...

...in all the areas
that it overtook.

I have olive trees.

There are individual taxes.

I am not allowed to pick
my own olives unless I get
proof of payment...

...from the Islamic State.

They went into an
area and the first thing they

would do is the
flour mill, the bakery,

the concrete factory
has to be taken without
damage immediately.

They thought about, "What
do we need to maintain the

infrastructure of this area?"

If you're a
car dealer, they enforce
taxes on car dealers.

Or if you own a building,
they calculate your income
and take taxes out of it.

If it's worth 3 or 4 million
lire, the Islamic State
will get a percentage.

They don't leave anything
alone without making a
profit from it.

For
example, for the,

from a policeman and
soldiers on the Iraqi side,

they told him,
"You're an infidel."

Theoretically,
you have to die,

but you can buy a
"forgiveness card."

The forgiveness card and the
money you have paid for it shows

that you are repenting and
every checkpoint will know if

you show them the
forgiveness card that
you have been forgiven.

So everybody bought for
$400 a forgiveness card.

A few months later,
the decree came out and,

"Oh, the forgiveness
cards have expired."

You can buy a new one,
but it costs a bit more.

So everything,
everything is costly.

The vast majority
of the Syrian people see,

um, ISIS as a
foreign occupation force.

In January 2014,
the Free Army,

the Islamic Front Militias,
and Al-Qaeda,

all of them
declared war on ISIS.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This is Al-Rai city
which is now liberated from the
dirt of ISIS. God is great.

All of our fighting
teams fought in the battle.

.

They kicked ISIS out
of the whole of Western Syria

out of Latakia,
Idlib, out of Aleppo,

but then in Iraq, because
the Iraqi state had become

so dysfunctional because the
Sunni Arabs in Iraq had become

so alienated, they
welcomed these people back in,

or some of them did.

They started
their blitzkrieg in Iraq,

taking over Mosul,
Tikrit, Shirgat, Hawija.

And they managed to overrun
the weapon depots of about

four Iraqi army divisions.

They were
drowning in weapons,

they couldn't even take all
the weapons with them and

burned some of them.

But now, they were a
full-fledged army with

Humvees, with
strikers, with tanks.

They captured all
the money in the banks in the

North of Iraq and they used
this money and the weapons to

surge back into Syria.

And they took large
parts of the country.

It was the
peak of their power.

And they used this moment
to declare the Caliphate.

This is our
caliphate in all its glory,
remaining and expanding.

It was
established in June 2014.

Its leader, from the tribe of
Horesh, is Sheikh Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi.

Its territory is already
greater than Britain's...

It's eight times
the size of Belgium...

...and 30 times the
size of Qatar.

We are men honored with
Islam, who climbed its
peaks to perform jihad...

...answering the call to
unite under one flag.

NARRATOR: Only a few centuries
after the birth of Christ,

the Muslim world
started expanding.

They were at the
forefront of the arts,

of the sciences, of astronomy.

They really were the center
of knowledge in the world.

.

NARRATOR: There's a real
yearning to return to those

days of glory, understandably.

They have been enduring
enormous oppression by

dictators that are often
propped up by the West and

completely dominated
by Western technology
and Western culture.

Part of what ISIS is doing
is trying to regain the former

glory of the caliphate and of
the worldwide dominance that

Muslim society enjoyed
many, many centuries ago.

Reports from Iraq today
say the ISIS army and other

Sunni Muslim forces
captured another major target.

It is the oil refinery
in Baiji that produces
one-third of Iraq fuel...

Isis militants
have seized a major oil
field in Syria.

Uh, the field produces
75,000 barrels of oil a day.

It's the latest...

.

From the early
days of the conflict,

gaining territory control
over areas that have energy

infrastructure were of primary
focus because they give revenue,

but they also give
semblance of a state to be

able to provide
natural resources,

electricity, fuel, cooking oil.

All those things is
what a government does.

They had people that
were able to handle
the expertise part.

There are enough Syrians in
the local areas that have been

working on these oil
fields for decades.

And while they controlled a
relatively smaller portion of

the overall Syrian territory,
they controlled an

overwhelming percentage
of the oil and gas
infrastructure and fields.

Based
on our research,

we came up with a number
of 45,000 barrels a day.

You are looking at a ceiling
of roughly $2 million a day

income for Daesh.

Who are the buyers?

How do thousands of
barrels of oil cross borders?

How do they get
bought and sold?

And there's a
currency exchange...

..so there must be
some international and
intelligence collusion.

There were columns
of trucks that were leaving.

Those trucks had to
be going somewhere!

Well, it's very controversial.

Some say they were
heading to Turkey.

The Turks dispute that.

Some were even saying
that it was a pipeline!

It wasn't a simple
convoy of trucks.

But an oil pipeline.

Daesh is
a different beast.

Daesh has a whole
portfolio of financial
resources and of course,

the smuggling of crude oil is
just a part of this portfolio.

This portfolio also
include weapons trafficking,

uh, human trafficking,
smuggling,

and of course, antiquities.

Looting of
antiquities in the region,

not just in Syria, in
the region as a whole,

is a time-honored tradition.

In times of hardship,
what do people do?

They find alternative
sources of income.

And so now, they just
start to loot at will.

.

BUYER: 55 thousand
dollars for both?

For two.

No one else from
Europe has seen them.

.

The Islamic State
institutionalized the
process of looting.

They made it
part of the state.

Anyone who wants
to excavate must go to the
office of antiquities...

...and request a
permit for excavation.

If they find anything, they have
to pay 20% to the Islamic State.

As the looting
process became more and
more sophisticated,

they would issue
permits to allow people

to bring in heavy machinery.

They established
auctions in which to
sell these looted items.

History be damned,
get me more material,

more cuneiform tablets,
more cylinder seals.

More anything.

More is just more.

More means more money.

From Syria alone,
ISIS was making tens of
millions of dollars.

While tens of millions
of dollars may not
mean much to you,

how much
does an IED cost?

How much is a 7.62 mm bullets?

How much do 50 of
those bullets go for?

How much does an AK-47 cost?

How much is an RPG?

How many RPGs can you
buy with $1 million?

ISIS sees cultural heritage
as an exploitable resource.

And so for them, they
will loot what they can sell,

but one of the primary
uses has been propaganda.

.

.

Once you destroy the
cultural heritage of a people,

you are in fact attacking
and destroying their
cultural identity.

Once you destroy
their cultural identity,

it's but a short step to
destroy and eradicate

the people themselves.

.

.

They lined
up the people.

"Those of you who are
Yazidis to this side..."

"...and those who are
not on this side."

Those who said
"Yazidi" were all killed.

All men. They were all murdered.

And they took the
women with them.

It was a tragic scene.

The idea of killing people
in such a manner...

...that only Jews suffered by
the hands of Nazis in the past.

As a result, 5000 people
were martyred or are missing.

And 5,877 girls, sisters
and kids were kidnapped.

REPORTER : Tens of
thousands of people from the

Yazidi religious minority fled
to this mountain ridge to escape

ISIS militants who
recently captured the
nearby town of Sinjar.

Please, Mr. Speaker, my
people are being slaughtered

just like all Iraqis
were slaughtered.

The Shiites, Sunnis,
Christians, Turkmens, and
Shabak were slaughtered.

And today, the Yazidis
are being slaughtered.

For 48 hours,
30,000 families have been
besieged on Sinjar Mountain.

Without water. Without food.
They are dying.

The Kurdish
regional government made it a

huge international outcry that
we have tens of thousands of

Yazidis thirsty and starved
to death on this mountain.

It was like you are touched,
the biblical maze of Masada.

People on the mountain,
50 degrees, in hot summer

without water, and all
the jihadists sitting

around the mountains
waiting to kill everybody.

You had old conflicts, old
hatreds between the Yazidis

from Sinjar and the Sunni's
ultra-loyalists to Saddam.

They were keen to make clear
that this area will never be

inhabited by Yazidis again.

.

NARRATOR: One of
their slogans is

"We the jihadists, we love
death more than you in
the West love life."

A lot of people think
that that means that
they're psychotic.

Only crazy people
would act like that.

But there is no way to
fight people who frame their

struggle in those terms
without also taking into

account some kind of
social and historical justice.

Music is illicit for
them, but nasheeds are allowed

since they don't use
instruments.

The nasheeds are religious
songs that in most cases
are incitement to murder.

And they listen to them
from morning to night.

People that come
back talk about how
nasheeds galvanized them.

And I think that
they contribute to it.

It's just like the French
national anthem helped
galvanize troops...

...at that time in France.

I imagine it was the
same type of idealism during
the French Revolution.

They leave convinced
that they're participating
in an historic moment.

Now, we'll
spread weapons to everyone who
wants to join the fighting.

-The Islamic State!
-Will remain!

-The Islamic State!
-Will remain!

Do you
the people of Islam vow to
God to sacrifice your life?

God is great!

.

The decision
was taken three days ago.

Jihad became mandatory
for all 18 to 40 year olds.

Let's leave.

I went to
the smuggler ten times.

Everyday he's not available
or that road is closed.

If you want to die,
take this road.

If you want to die, let's go.

Do you want to
go die, sweetie?

-No.
-No?

You are dying here too. Bashar
al-Assad is barrel bombing us.

We are dying here
and we'd die there.

Why do you want to leave?

Because all of
my friends have already left.

Where did they go?

To
Germany and Turkey.

I went to the
smuggler with my kids and
squatted at his place.

When he came and saw the
kids, he got scared.

He said,"There's no
way I can smuggle you!"

"You have little kids. If
someone cries or if anyone
talks at the border..."

"...they'll shoot you
and arrest me right away."

I told him,"I'm not leaving
until you smuggle me out.

When we arrived at the border,
I was terrified.

My wife started shaking.

I started reciting verses
from the Quran. I prayed.

It took about 15 minutes.

During those 15 minutes, I felt
like I died 100,000 times.

Our
objective is clear.

We will degrade and ultimately
destroy ISIL through a

comprehensive and sustained
counterterrorism strategy.

.

.

.

ISIS had not
anticipated this reaction

because when two months prior,
they had overrun Mosul.

Obama's
reaction was basically,

"Oh, we should do
something about it."

But nothing happened.

Once the Americans started
to attack the Islamic State,

ISIS needed to react somehow.

So it was a message
for the U.S.

We are
willing to lay down our
blood on this soil.

So try, try to come.

I will kill every single
soldier, bismillah.

We will chop off the
heads of the Americans,

chop off the
heads of the French,

chop off the heads of...

NARRATOR: Every war is a
form of dialogue between the

warring parties and
all actions are a form
of communication.

.

When President Obama
decided to bomb ISIS forces,

he was communicating to ISIS
that we were not gonna

stand by and let
anything happen.

And ISIS needed to be
communicating to the West that

they could not be messed with.

Today,
your military air force is

attacking us daily in Iraq.

So any attempts
by you, Obama,

to deny the Muslims their
rights of living in safety

under the Islamic caliphate
will result in the bloodshed

of your people.

NARRATOR: As a result, ISIS
cut off James Foley's head.

That didn't stop the bombing,
so they kept cutting off heads

and we kept bombing.

I'm back, Obama,
because of your arrogant

foreign policy
towards the Islamic State.

You, Obama, have yet
again, for your actions,

killed yet another
American citizen.

We will stick
to the very clear
strategy that we have.

To help make sure the Kurds
get the arms they need

to fight off, uh,
these brutal, uh,

extremist militants.

This British
man has to pay the price
for your promise,

Cameron, to arm the
Peshmerga against
the Islamic State.

Your evil alliance with
America will only

accelerate your destruction.

ISIS won't quit today.

They're keeping at it.

Since morning, they've been
saying their Allah Akbars.

Do we know
when operations begin?

Tomorrow.

You mean
it's that close?

That's right.
We begin tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we're going to start
shelling the area in grids.

Our operation
should last four days.

First, they shell each
grid for us and then
we attack on foot.

.

Oh, ISIS, we
hail from the town of Dhi Qar.

We have no fear of
your suicide bombs, nor
your bullets and guns.

Now true warriors have
entered the fray and
cowards are running away.

.

In the name of
the Prophet Mohammed,
you are all victors.

.

.

Wait!

You're all doing
everything wrong.

Come back and spread out.

.

Cut that rope.

.

.

This is the center
of Jurf al-Sakhar.

.

Bravo
for this victory!

PETER :
The long-term prognosis
of ISIS is not great

because they made a
world of enemies.

That is not a
winning strategy.

Napoleon was the greatest
general of the modern era but

he fought everybody.

So everybody, then,
coalesced to get rid of him.

ISIS is making
the same mistake.

We're in the center of
Jurf al-Sakhar right now.

The entire town is liberated.

And we're
advancing further ahead.

PETER :
They're already suffering
the consequences.

They keep losing territory.

Basically the whole world
is ganged up against them.

Russia has always been
consistently fighting against
terrorism in all its forms.

.

We noticed
that the first series
of Russian strikes...

It was mostly hitting...

...the moderate opposition
and very little ISIS.

Putin didn't go
into Syria to fight ISIS.

If that was the case,
he would've fought ISIS.

80% of the bombing
was on non-ISIS targets.

.

I see what looks like
the future now and that is a

very influential Russia with a
Bashar Assad that is able to

at least control the areas
of Syria that are of most

importance to him.

The Assad regime
and lately Russia, too,

have been bombing not
just militia formations
on the ground,

they've been bombing
bakeries, schools, hospitals.

Because the people can't
defend themselves from this

aerial bombardment, it's
absolute hell on Earth.

Assad wants those in the
middle to be eliminated so the

choice is either him or ISIS.

We didn't see any
army, not the U.S. or others,
stand up against Russia...

...or ask them to stop
killing Muslim children.

We see that the ones
being killed right now are
kids, women and elders.

As they love their children,
women, and mothers in
their countries...

...so we also love our children,
women, and mothers in Syria.

Double standards
are a huge mistake.

You see daily, we,
women fight against an enemy
that does not respect women.

We refuse to let them
kill our women and children.

We protect them
and we save them.

And we restore law and order.

There is no difference
between a man and a woman
in Kurdish militia.

We are all comrades of
each other. That's unique.

We fight together, work
together, strive together.

We are together on one team.

We are seen as playing a
major role and never less.

.

.

Airstrikes
will begin and then we'll
lead the ground force.

There aren't that many left.
We just need to finish them.

It's ISIS.

.

.

.

I killed him.

Earlier today, I sniped them
from there. The bullets buzzed
over, as we hit them.

Yes. One died and
two were injured.

.

.

.

The
airstrikes are killing about
1,000 ISIS members

every month, and
rationing down the oil,

and getting rid of
some of their money.

That is really
going to impact them.

If you control several
million people and you're

taxing them for pretty
much everything they do.

That's all the money.

So every time they lose a
big city which is several
hundred thousand people,

that's several hundred thousand
people they can't tax.

The morale
of ISIS soldiers is certainly
not good right now.

Because of their defeats
and how they've been losing
territory on the frontline.

They've had to retreat a lot.

It will probably
continue like this.

I think the
Islamic State will soon...

...weaken and weaken and weaken
until it totally disappears.

.

With our soul.
With our blood. We
sacrifice for you, Iraq!

.

This it my brother?

-Ah, okay.
-Let's park
here in the middle.

Are you in the army?

Are you a soldier?

Wait up.
I can't hear anything.

You're a soldier?

What did you say?

I was
asking if you were a soldier.

-Huh?
-You're a soldier?
-Yes.

-You're
from the Perignon barracks?
-Yes.

That's good.

No, I'm not from
Perignon. I'm close to
Toulouse at Lougnon.

How many
years have you been there?

Ten years.

-Ten years?
-Yes.

Damn.

Lay down on your stomach.

Lay down on your stomach.
I'm not kidding.
Lay down on your stomach.

Lay down on your stomach.
I'm not laying down
on my stomach.

-Lay down
on your stomach.
-Go ahead. Shoot.

In the name of Allah.

.

.

For the French
jihadist community, it's the
beginning of something.

I had talked to many
French ISIS fighters...

At the time it was
actually called ISIL.

As early as 2013, right when
ISIS makes its presence in
Syria official...

...they were all into a
Mohammed Merah type of logic.

A terrorist logic.

Some youngsters have
his picture up on the wall...

...like I had the poster
of Jim Morrison above my
bed when I was sixteen.

Well, they have Merah's.

He's the first one that
dared to shoot people on
the streets and claim it.

This new form of
terrorism was introduced by

Al-Qaeda's ideologue
Abu Musab al-Suri.

In his writings where he calls
for a form of low cost terror,

many terror acts all
over the place conducted

by the people that
actually live there.

This is the conclusion
that Abu Musab al-Suri draws.

The only jihad...
the most efficient jihad...

...is what he calls
"individual jihad."

Today, it's what we
would call the lone wolf.

REPORTER :
San Bernardino, California
mass casualty situation.

A terror attack
in the French City of Nice.

At least 80 people.

REPORTER :
The 17-year-old used
an axe and knife

to attack passengers.

A lone gunman called 911
to pledge allegiance to ISIS.

.

Oh my God.

If it is
hard for you to immigrate
to the Islamic State....

...God will reward
you if you mimic...

...what our brother
Mohammed Merah did.

Look for any method.
Slaughter them with a knife.

Take their weapons.
Go in their houses.

Slaughter them.
Terrorize them.

God commanded us to
attack his and our enemy.

This is
what terrorists do.

They instill
fear in societies.

If you instill
fear in a society,

it comes at a big cost.

I mean, you see it in our
political campaigns going on

today in the United States.

With some of the, you know,
some of the comments that are

being made about various,
parts of our society and what

to do about them.

You know, the whole
issue of immigration
is a big, big deal,

uh, and that's, that's playing
out terribly in Europe.

This is Turkey.
This is Turkey.

When we got out...

The joy! Indescribable.

Believe me, I was born again.

Thank God we escaped that evil
territory and are entering the
land of true Islam.

In Syria, you're afraid
of the airplanes. You're
afraid of ISIS fighters.

There are no playgrounds.
No schools.

Just seeing the kids
having psychological
comfort makes me at ease.

They're just playing and
I thought ISIS was coming.

The images of ISIS are
still stuck in my head.

The summer of 2015,
suddenly hundreds of thousands

of people came, Syrian
refugees from Turkey.

There are a lot of
extremely decent,

sophisticated, uh,
people among the immigrants.

But you have also
small time criminals and

infiltrators from ISIS.

A lot of people feel
overwhelmed by what they

perceive as an invasion
of Muslims threatening
our way of life.

The Muslim people in Europe
it's only around 5%

but in certain cities,
for instance in Brussels,

one generation from now,
the Muslim community
will be the majority.

This has caused an enormous
political backlash and

resurgence of
right-wing movements.

The resources that are
gonna be required to correct

some of these
problems that we have,

refugees, displaced
people around the world,

is, just the
numbers are staggering.

We have to get back in there,
stabilize that area to the

point where you can then tell
all these people who would

rather live in
their own homes,

you can tell them and
they'll all come back.

Otherwise, the likelihood of
a far greater conflict grows

higher and higher every day.

We came from
Syria and we thought we
were going directly...

...to the sea, and then to
Greece and continue on our way.

I would like to
go but I'm afraid of the sea.

I want to take them
out of this situation.

...take them and secure
their future there.

... not to kill them in the sea,
I'm just scared of the sea.

Today marks ten days
here looking for a smuggler.

And we keep spending money.

In a short time, we might
not have enough money to go.

I don't know.

Let's hope God helps us
find an honest smuggler.

That's a
contradiction in terms -
"honest" and"smuggler."

They're trafficking humans,
how can they be honest?

I don't care, so long
as he doesn't kill us at sea.

We should ask in
these restaurants...

These guys are Syrian.
Ask them if they know
where the smugglers are.

May peace be upon you.

Look, I won't
lie to you because my sister
and brother are going with you.

Don't cheat us please.

Okay, listen brother.
Four adults and two children
ages eight and nine.

And six kids ranging
from five years old
to two months old.

The cars will
pick you up at night and the
boats will leave at dawn.

I'm not going to Greece.

I told you while we were
still in Syria I won't go.

Right?

I didn't want any of this.

But you made me come here.

One big wave and that's it.
My kids are gone.

Then, I'll end
up with nothing.

All I have is my four
children. I'm not going.

If we die at sea,
we will die with our kids. We go
together. No one left behind.

If we survive, we
will live a good life.

NARRATOR: Any reasonable
person would flee the

kind of fighting that
we've seen in Syria.

They'd happily risk their
lives to be smuggled

across the border.

They'd collect by the
millions in neighboring

countries even living in
squalid refugee camps.

Eventually, they'd make their
way to the West to look for a

better life for
their children.

People say "Look,
it's not our problem."

Okay, it's not your problem
but that doesn't mean you

won't be affected by it.

You can say that you don't
actually care about human

suffering but the truth is
that all violence and misery

eventually affect
the entire world.

In that sense, there is no
escaping the fact that we are

all part of the human race.

There is no escaping the fact
that borders become irrelevant

once people start dying and
societies begin to collapse.

How many
hours to get there?

Hopefully
an hour or less.

God protect
the children please!

You see those
mountains there? That's Greece.

.

.

We're watching
our memories.

It's our destiny to die.

So we will die with dignity.

We won't die
while surrendering.

We will die standing.

I plan to remain here
, despite the bombing.

I'll keep serving my country.
No matter what happens,
I am not leaving here.

This is my country.

.