One of the most buzzed about topics around the world right now is on the civil war in Syria. A lot of people don’t really understand what exactly is happening over there. There are many facts we should know before reading other articles on strikes and agreements happening between different countries.
In 2011, many activists began to protest Syria’s dictatorship. Security, threatened by the protesters, slowly started killing them. It then lead to kidnapping, rape, torture and murdering many family members and children. When security started shooting civilians at every protest, activists fought back. This all started to build more and more, until a civil war began. Not only has the government bombed many parts of the country, but they have also started using chemical weapons…a big reason why Syria has been making huge headlines.
Russia and Iran have both supported Syria, making it difficult for the United States to end the destruction. Syria is Russia’s biggest ally for multiple reasons. Not only does Russia have a military installation in the country, but Syria also buys military exports from them.
The U.S. does not have many options to try to end the war without making things worse. Russia sees international intervention as a threat against them. But, the Obama Administration has talked about holding an international peace conference if negotiations on removing chemical weapons from Syria work out.
For now, there could be a possible strike from the U.S. on Syria. Obama has considered launching missiles at the country as punishment for using chemical weapons on harmless civilians. Unfortunately, many people don’t understand why chemical weapons are such terrible things to use in war.
The whole purpose in fighting a war is to defeat the opposing side. Yes, people will be killed, but innocent civilians should not be. Chemical weapons, such as deathly gases, can give one side an advantage they need to win. But, it spreads and has deadly effects on the other people living around it.
Whether the U.S. government takes action or not, the war in Syria will not stop this year, or anytime soon. Russia has made it difficult to come to an agreement, and even if they didn’t, Syria will have a lot of recovery to do. Victory will not come for a long time, if at all, and people will continue fleeing the country. For now, all we can hope for is the peace conference to actually be initiated and an agreement to be reached that chemical weapons will not be used or be removed.