The current situation in Syria is no easy topic to either understand or create opinions about. The things that the people of Syria are experiencing are incredibly horrific. To have a once great and economically diverse country destroyed by a bloody civil war is almost impossible to imagine. However, it is easy to wish for relief and give compassion to the people of Syria because of this. Many Americans, including the President, want to get involved in Syria because of the disastrous chemical weapons that were allegedly used by the Syrian government on its people. While it is absolutely understandable to want to intervene and help out the people affected by these attacks, I believe that it is simply best not to get involved.
It may sound cold or inhumane to not want to help the people of Syria and get involved, but in my opinion, this situation is simply not our place to jump in. Additionally, President Obama's stance on the issue is incredibly hypocritical. As one of the most aggressive opposers of the war on Iraq, the President now wants to get involved in Syria under a situation that is nearly the same. After calling past political leaders warmongers, he now wants to jump into a situation that could very likely create another war for the United States. Despite the crimes of humanity that are happening to the Syrian people, I just don't think that it is the job of the United States to intervene in this situation. There is too much risk for another war for the United States, and the Syrian ties with Al-Qeada make it even more complex and dangerous.
There is definitely two sides to the story. One thing that I found very interesting is that the U.S. is giving the Syrian government over 5 billion dollars in aid. However its both good and bad. It is good because there are facts that much of the money is being used to help syrian people in such a vital state. However the negative side is that some of the money is been used to create chemical weapons that have been used on the syrian people just a short time ago. There is much more that needs to be found out about the syrian government.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Ben. I totally agree. Its a very tough situation. On one hand you are helping others but aiding terror, but at the same time you are aiding terror but helping others. Very hard to grasp.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Ben. I totally agree. Its a very tough situation. On one hand you are helping others but aiding terror, but at the same time you are aiding terror but helping others. Very hard to grasp.
ReplyDeleteYou do a good job of capturing the impasse of the situation. When it's not clear how intervention will actually play out on the ground, it is very easy to call for it, but very hard to predict whether it will do any good. I think Obama's defense of his position would be that he is not a pacifist, opposed to all wars on principle. He opposed the Iraq war because it was totally unrealistic about its goals and unnecessary for our security. Certainly, the "unnecessary for our security" argument might hold here, but his defense there would probably be that a limited strike will avoid prolonged involvement while setting the precedent that using certain weapons will have serious consequences. Plenty of reasons to disagree there, but I think that it is important at least to get a sense of what the thinking here is.
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