It was a nice sunny summer afternoon in 2003, when I met on the streets of Belgium one of my Syrian acquaintances with a petrified look on his face. He simply told me that he was very worried about his country and that may be a war was coming to Syria...I had no idea of what the situation in Syria was like during that time, but tried to calm him down a bit - I was thinking that people often succumb to their fears and as a result they become more pessimistic. Unfortunately, he turned out to be right and I was wrong - people from Syria probably sensed that something terrible was about to happen in their country.
It's been 7 years already, as you have pointed out and it's still ongoing. Attempts to reach peace had been made, but so far in vain. Hopefully, this war finally ends, so that people in Syria live in peace and rebuild their country. And I hope all my Syrian acquaintances, whose traces I lost right after leaving Belgium, are all fine, as much as one could be fine in such circumstances.