How war can change a country

Some months back i was watching Discovery travel channel. I saw Bobby Chin in a famous ice cream shop in Syria - where the shop owner was saying people come from all neighboring countries to syria just to visit and have ice-cream in his shop. Then i flipped the channel to Al Jazeera - they were showing a war-torn town called Aleppo which looked like a WW-2 bombed city. Where people live like stray dogs in deserted urban surburbia.

I was thinking what happened to the happy faces i saw just 2 channels before - just 5 years ago.. I was thinking did their Government wanted this situation or some external elements wanted this situation.. I was thinking what war can do to a country..