Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Ongoing Crisis in Syria

Fairly recently, the Syrian government used sarin gas against its own civilians in areas hostile to the government, killing over a thousand people. An agreement was reached in which Syria agreed to hand over their weapons. However, the issue remains that Syria is killing thousands of innocent people through more traditional means. The question is: Is this any more acceptable than killing innocent people with chemical weapons? Little action is being taken to stop the Syrian government from killing its own people without the use of chemical weapons. The use of chemical weapons seemed to get the whole world up in arms because of their “indiscriminate” destructive force. What really needs to occur is some kind of international tribunal to prosecute the entities responsible for these killings. It is not enough for them to hand over the weapons that they used. They need to face justice for their horrendous actions.
            If the US presses for charges against Syria, several other countries will press charges against Israel for occupying land originally earmarked for the Palestinians. The situation presents itself as quite a stalemate. If one side acts, the other side will counter, so options are very limited. Israel is a strong ally of the US, so it would be very difficult to put them in a position where they could be vulnerable. To resolve the issue of Syria killing its own people without taking military action, very smart and pragmatic policy must be enacted. We must recognize that things are not perfect as are, but also realize all possible ramifications for different courses of action.


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