The alarming escalation of the systematic crackdown on the Syrian people at the hands of their own government demands greater attention from the global community, especially here in America.
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Should an international coalition intervene in the conflict in Syria?
- Yes
- No
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As fall grows closer, the goldfish-like attention span of America will drift toward presidential campaign mania. This quadrennial tendency makes the public eyes of Americans drift even further toward introverted self involvement. It is during this period that America — from the government down to university students — need to remain aware of the current events that will define what our generation did, whether we acknowledged these events or not.
As a citizen of one of the most powerful nations in the world, I believe we have a duty to make sure that basic human rights are not systematically transgressed upon. This is especially true when it concerns the citizens of less-fortunate nations, especially when at the hands of their own government. In regards to mass atrocity crimes taking place in the world, this time we know, again. (Referring to the hesitant action of the allies in regards to Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jews, and that they would have intervened sooner, had ‘we only known’). If we remain comatose and act complacent whilst doing so, we will become morally culpable and thus, morally defeated.
In this now nearly yearlong conflict, the death toll in Syria is around 6,000, according to a CNN article. The Arab League has observed these atrocities in action and has gone to the U.N. with both their findings and recommendations. The support for these resolutions has been unanimous in the global community, with the fatal flaw of two of the five veto power nations — Russia and China — opposing these security council resolutions.
While the option of unilateral action is certainly a possibility, a consensus or coalition is easily a more desirable option. If more grass-roots activism and voicing of sentiments to the world’s diplomats takes place, our generation can get the message across that we need action, not words. The heinously high figure of 6,000 has not by any means been fixed.
The question you must ask yourself shouldn’t be one of ledgers and dollars, but rather of moral principle. In about 20 years when your kid comes home from school after learning about these events and asks you about Homs, Bashar al-Assad and Syria, what will you say to them?
“Well, we ran this equation, and it turned out that the price per human life just didn’t merit any action, and abstaining from action saved us a lot of money.”
Or will you be able to say, “Let me tell you about the humanitarian intervention that deposed this despotic dictator and liberated the citizens of Syria”
I implore you to take action so we can keep Syria off of a macabre list that includes the likes of Rwanda, Sarajevo, Srebrenica and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The sooner we act, the better chance there will be for preventing further, needless death.
Nolan Kraszkiewicz is a religious studies and political science junior.
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BoomerSooner25 3 months, 2 weeks ago
How about we focus on our own country for once and stop wasting money intervening in the affairs of other nations.