Magar

Sulav Magar Kristen Foster CO 150.400 10/26/2013

Is Military Intervention in Syria Necessary?

To explore more in depth to my research question I have been doing an extensive online research such as news articles. I then conducted further research on scholarly articles main ones being peer-reviewed journals. I also attended a speech from a former U.S Ambassador on the issue of Syria in CSU. And lastly watching news interviews of different leaders from other countries besides the U.S. The speech and news interviews I watched arent necessarily a credible source but it put me in a slight advantage hearing about Syria from professionals who are experts in such topics. The Syria military intervention really interested me because it is the most controversial topic in the media right now that different world leaders have been eyeing on like a hawk does its prey. But what is one high powered individual to do when he sees people crying for help in media. When thousands upon thousands of people were killed. Children, women were brought into this disaster because someone wanted to keep power using violence and force. This initial massacre event of thousands of innocent civilians is what caused the military intervention issue to be brought in the round table of President Obama and Congress of the United States of America. Based on personal experience, its also interesting to see that one small aerial attack which was initially planned can trigger so much more than just an aerial attack. It can cause neighboring and allied countries to go to war. What started out as a tension between

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Syria and the United States can eventually lead to countries like Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and France to get involved, initially on the verge of starting World War III. Before I started my research, I made sure I asked myself a lot of pertinent questions regarding Syria so I can fully understand both sides of the issue. Is Syria to blame or is the U.S using another excuse to step foot in another country? Politics is a game of cat and mouse, game of the best and brightest, game of the few who controls the rest. War has been going on for centuries, this isnt the first time we are experiencing war. As long as the red blood stays within mens body, war will go on, from the Roman Empire to the future, whatever it may hold. Some people find it hard to believe that war still goes on to this modernized world that we live in today. No matter the modernization, human mind will always be violent. War wont solve any problems, but its also a key piece to bring in peace to this world. So after extensive research into many articles, videos, speech, news interviews, I will be talking about the brief history of U.Ss involvements in other countries then focus on Syria and let the audience decide if U.S military intervention is really necessary. As far as history dates, we have been involved in other countries business. I will go over the most important ones that weve been involved in. Starting initially in 1890 in the State of Dakota, killing 300 Lakota Indians. China in 1894-95 during Sino- Japanese war, Iran in 1953 overthrowing democracy and installing Shah, a title given to emperors and kings. Vietnam in 1960s to 1975, one million people were killed making it the longest U.S war in history. And most recent, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2001 followed by Libya in 2011, overthrowing Muammar Gadaffi. The question stands, why have we been involved in so many other countries? Upon my research I found that the following quote makes a lot of sense What goes around comes around is the main reason why we get involved in wars. What happens in other countries directly affects

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us. The stakeholder involved has made it so we have to get involved in other countries for our benefit back home. The military industrial complex is a big business here in the U.S. It controls our weapons, money flow, the more war we are involved in the more money big corporations make with all the weapons, ammunition and military technology they sell us. One obvious reason being is the oil of course. But is the welfare and profit of our country the only reason we get involved in other countries? No, with great power comes great responsibility. Thats what we are right now, we are the big brothers of other countries. We have to make sure we protect the weak when they cant themselves. U.S does so many different humanitarian rescue missions in poor countries, we feed them, we save them while other countries doesnt get involved in tragic issues we face in this world. I guess we can say, you scratch my back and Ill scratch yours. So back to the issue of Syria. Why is Syria such an important topic in the media today? On the morning of 21 August, as media has portrayed, is when Syria used chemical weapons against its own people in a town of Damascus and Zamalka killing thousands of innocent civilians. Within couple hours of the attack, videos were surfacing online of this horrendous attack on these civilians that didnt do anything to harm anybody. They are families like yours and mine, maybe sitting at the dinner table talking about our days or asleep peacefully in our beds. Some keyword we can focus in this paragraph before we focus on more detail is the word Chemical Weapons. Nuclear and chemical weapons have been put on strict restrictions by the United Nations and super powers such as China, Russia and the U.S. There were treaties signed prohibiting the production and usage of such weapons but yet the Syrian military managed to use it, not for a good cause but for the death and destruction of their own people which they were signed up to protect, their country and their people. As a military member of any country, youre mission should be protecting your countries asset and the people who reside there, and mission

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accomplishment should be the first priority to them. So if mission accomplishment is the first priority then why is the Syrian government hurting their own? Extensive experiments and research were conducted on the scene of impact to see what kind of arsenals were used as well as what kind of chemical weapons. After being through years of gas chamber training I can personally tell you that it is not a fun thing to experience in real life and nobody should ever be exposed to such chemicals. But after the UN chemical weapons inspectors and a non-profit organization called Doctors without Borders were sent to do the crime solving and found out that they used a nerve agent sarin in the towns of Damascus and Zamalka. Within hours several thousand people were dead from shortness of breath, runny nose, eye irritation, blurred vision and the inability to breathe. As a good Samaritan, I would do everything in my power to protect the helpless. Thats when every little decision came falling down to President Barack Obama. As a President of the worlds biggest super power. President Obama was obligated to do what any good Samaritan would do. Help the ones in need. After watching a fifteen minute Presidential Address on Syria, I could clearly tell that President Obama wasnt going to stand around and let dictators control the lives of others. After dictators like Hitler and Stalin, I dont think we want history repeating again. Mr. Obama had clear intentions of using aerial attacks to attack Syria and destroy all their nuclear and chemical weapon bases. After being in war for almost 13 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was put in difficult situation by the American public. Many were opposed to the war and started campaigns to stop the attack on Syria. During his Presidential Address one quote that stood out to me the most was when he said When dictators commit atrocities, they depend upon the world to look the other way until those horrifying pictures fade from memory. But these things happened. The facts cannot be denied. President Barack Obama September 10

Magar Presidential Address. This quote stood out to me the most because thats exactly what history has showed us with past dictators, kill and hope people forget. But thats not how its supposed to work; you dont just kill innocent men, women, and children and get away with it. Now I want to tackle my research question from the opposite point of view, the Syrian governments view of President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian government and the top military generals have denied being behind the 21 August attack of Syrians. Syria has asked U.S to provide proof that Syria has done this to their own people. In fact Syria has accused the U.S, Turkey and Saudi Arabia for this attack saying they have supported the rebel groups to carry out this attack to blame them instead. Now why on earth would Syria blame us and not just us but Turkey and Saudi Arabia which we never hear on the news about. U.S has been providing support to the Syrian rebels with vehicles, weapons and non-lethal military gear to assist them with a civil war that started out 2 and a half years ago. Turkey being Syrias neighbor has played an influential role in this matter. While our main reason for military intervention is because of the 21 August attack, Turkeys involvement is that it has seen Syrian people die in masses; over 100,000 Syrians had lost their lives before this attack. Syrian rebels have also confirmed that Saudi Arabia has been assisting them in fighting this civil war therefore Saudi Arabia is having the same reason as the U.S. After hours of research, driving around to attend speeches, this issue of Syria has increased my horizon into bigger and broader subject of research. Like mentioned above, politics is a game a few high powered people like to play that has impact on all our lives. After all this research on both sides of the topic, I hope my audience uses their own knowledge and research to either support or deny the involvement of U.S in this war. I know this is just the beginning and there is probably so much more to this issue that hasnt surfaced yet. This wasnt just a paper to

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write for me but something I am keenly interested in so I hope on finding more reasons and explanations that will help me stay on this issue of Syria. God bless the Syrian people and god bless the United States of America.

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Work Cited

Jasper, William F. "Syria, Obama, Putin, And The UN." New American (08856540) 29.19 (2013): 44. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Kaiser, Jocelyn. "As Syria Crisis Mounts, Scientist Looks Back At Last Major Chemical Attack." Science 341.6150 (2013): 1051. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. Henningsen, Patrick. "The Syria "Chemical Weapons" Media Hype: Pushing for Military Intervention." Global Research, 24 Aug 2013. Web. 24 Oct 2013.

Londono, Ernesto, and Greg Miller. "U.S. weapons reaching Syrian rebels." National Security. Washington Post, 11 Sep 2013. Web. 25 Oct 2013. Obama, Barack, perf. President Obama Address To The Nation On Syria! . YouTube, 2013. Web. 26 Oct 2013. "Syria chemical attack: What we know." News Middle East. BBC, 24 Sep 2013. Web. 26 Oct 2013. Barnard, Anne. "Syrian Rebels Say Saudi Arabia Is Stepping Up Weapons Deliveries." Middle East. New York Times, 12 Sep 2013. Web. 25 Oct 2013.