Assadists regularly use the term “proxy war” because most of them are know-nothings whose politics are a repertoire of fear-mongering condemnations using such terms as jihadis, Wahhabi/Salafi, head-choppers.

There is no such thing as a proxy war. It’s a political obfuscation. Using the term means you have not studied the complexities of a conflict enough to understand who is involved, how they’re involved, why they’re involved.