Intervention is Necessary in Syria

Unlike previous weeks, it was actually quite easy to find a story to cover for this edition of the blog. In fact, I had trouble deciding which topic I wanted to write about the most, given the vast amount of subject material available. Needless to say, it has been a busy week. During my weekly scramble for news stories, I had a sense of disbelief of what I was seeing. Surely this was some kind of sick joke perpetrated by my enemies. This multitude of stories was unprecedented. And since this bountiful harvest of stories available now probably will not be as plentiful next week, I will take advantage of the opportunity.

            But in all seriousness, this week�s subject is grim. A town located in the Idlib province of Syria became the center of the world�s attention yesterday following a chemical attack that killed 70 innocent civilians, including women and children. The town is one of the last rebel held areas in Syria which made it a target of the Assad regime. Russia, which backs the regime�s military, responded to the attack by claiming that the gas came from an airstrike that hit a series of workshops that contained dangerous chemical substances that were released into the air following the bombing. That explanation was universally dismissed as propaganda and there has been worldwide outrage directed at Russia for standing by Assad even after these horrific acts.

            While Russia�s claims are ridiculous and pathetic, that is not my focus of this article. History has a way of repeating itself, and this is one of those times. Following World War I and the Great Depression, there was an isolationist movement within America to stay out of global affairs because the average American would not be effected nor care about a war in a far-off country that would not directly affect the United States. That logic is understandable, but it is severely short-sighted. Our unwillingness to enter World War 2 indirectly led to the deaths of countless Jews and other civilians in concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau. If we had intervened sooner the war would have ended sooner and some of those lives may have been saved. It was only when the war directly affected our people at Pearl Harbor did we step in. While we were not aware of the scale of the concentration camps and the mass killings of the innocent, it was common knowledge that the Nazis were anti-Semitic and that they had been executing Jews and other groups of people hated by society. We were complacent. That was a major mistake and we should have learned from it.

            But those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Following the disastrous Iraq War and the War on Terror, there has been another isolationist movement within the United States that wants no part in the affairs of the Middle East. This isolationist mood has made America very hesitant to intervene in the Syrian Civil War in fear of having to commit and get involved in another war. That is once again, understandable. But, when a situation arises when innocent civilians are being killed by their own government, like what happened yesterday, action is required. That is not happening. America is once again acting complacent like it did before World War 2.

This situation is not all that different from the 1940s in Germany. This attack is a tyrannical government deliberately killing its own citizens with a lethal gas. History is repeating itself. Will we learn from our mistakes, or are we doomed to repeat?

I think that until this war directly effects the American people, no serious action will be taken, and this six year war will continue to drag on and more innocent people will die. That�s all I have for this week. There is nothing more to be said on this subject unless action is taken. And since I don�t foresee that happening, this is it.