Syrian men carry children through rubble in Aleppo in September 2016.
Last week, the world was left shocked by the news of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime using chemical weapons on its own people. This attack destroyed communities, deprived children of their parents, and inflicted major brain and nerve damage upon survivors. Even more disheartening is that this was only one incident in a brutal civil war that has lasted since 2011, and has since resulted in over 400,000 deaths, 4.8 million refugees, and 6.3 million internally-displaced citizens, according to CNN. Indeed, the war has only been exacerbated by Mr. Assad’s brutal tactics such as chemical attacks and barrel bombing, and the rise of terrorist groups like ISIS and the al-Nusra front in the region. This brutal conflict is destroying millions of civilian lives, and it is time for the United States to intervene.
In the 20th century, some of the United States’ greatest foreign policy failings came from its reluctance to intervene in cases of genocides. During World War II, the government turned away thousands of Jewish refugees trying to escape the Holocaust. Additionally, the United States was also slow to intervene during the mass slaughters in Rwanda and Bosnia during the 1990s. If the United States does not take urgent action in Syria, decades from now, Americans will wonder why we didn’t rush to the aid of those who experienced senseless suffering during the Syrian Civil War.
The United States, with airstrikes and ground troops, would easily be able to end the war. Unfortunately, Russia supports the abusive Assad regime, thereby complicating any United Nations (UN) efforts to solve the problem. Therefore, any military action that the United States takes would have to break UN protocol. While doing so sets a dangerous precedent, the war has caused the deaths of too many innocent citizens, making it essential to end the conflict as soon as possible and by any means necessary. The United States must make clear that it is willing to negotiate with Russia in order to reach a compromise, but it also will not tolerate any Russian support of the al-Assad regime against moderate rebels. Ending the war should not devolve into a proxy war between the United States and Russia.
Another problem is figuring out what to do after Mr. Assad is deposed. After the Iraq War, the United States created a huge power vacuum in Iraq when they disbanded the Baath party. As a result, ISIS was able to take advantage of the chaos. Defeating ISIS will have to be a central focus in ending the Syrian Civil War to prevent further conflict. Despite the need for change, the Trump administration will likely not take the right steps to end the war. Although President Trump fired retaliatory military strikes at Syria, they were purely symbolic and were ultimately an expensive way to do absolutely no damage. Deposing the Syrian government and then abandoning the nation will leave the region vulnerable to ISIS — therefore, an end to the war must involve the defeat of ISIS with multinational help and the establishment of a strong Syrian state. Compromising with Russia will prove essential to ending the conflict, as Russia is correctly concerned that defeating Mr. Assad will leave the region vulnerable to extremist groups. Finally, a large financial investment will be necessary in the aftermath of the war to prevent the region from becoming a breeding ground for terrorism. Certainly, it will be costly in more ways than one to end the Syrian Civil War. However, this cost does not outweigh the price of countless lives.
