On September 10, 2013 President Obama gave his speech about the Assad regime gassing multiple locations near Damascus. Videos of this gas attack by the Assad regime has been released by the U.S Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Abraham Lincoln once said, "No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent." The role of a government is to defend the rights of the people but the Syrian government is more occupied with massacring their own citizens and even young children. Can you picture your own government launching chemical weapons on your town then continuing to gas your town constantly for days? Can you picture your government killing innocent children while parents watch them gasp for air before they die in their parents arms? These are the actions of the Syrian government.
I know in class today we discussed how the U.S government manipulated the people of the U.S into going to war with Iraq. Many people are still uncertain about launching military strikes against the Syrian government because of the consequences of the Iraq War. The videos could be fake and were released to help support Obama's decision to go to war if diplomacy fails.
Even after the recent discussion in class about how President Bush and the government manipulated the citizens of United States to go war with Iraq, I still believe the U.S should take military action to prevent the Assad regime from using chemical weapons. I believe the videos are not fake. If the U.S doesn't intervene then the Assad regime will continue to use illegal chemical weapons to kill the citizens of Syria. This would lead to other tyrants acquiring chemical weapons because the U.S and other nations looked the other way. Soon soldiers will be facing chemical weapons on the battlefields but the soldiers won't be the only ones that suffer from chemical weapons, other civilians in the battlefield will suffer as well. President Obama wants to send a clear message to the rest of the world that the U.S will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons. President Obama states that this will not be another war like the Iraq war, it will only be precise military strikes to deter the use of chemical weapons. Although this might be another lie the U.S and other nations cannot look the other way while the Assad regime continues to violate the Geneva protocol. Even though Syria committed heinous crimes against their own people President Obama is trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the chemical weapons that Syria possess. The U.S with the help of Russia, a strong ally of Syria are trying to push Assad to give up their chemical weapons. The U.S is hoping to resolve this conflict without any military action but when the time comes the U.S must take action and stop this heinous crime.
Vinny, I agree with some of your views but you often contradict your self when talking about believing that chemical weapons are true. You say phrases like " I believe the videos are not fake" which contradicts other phrases like " Although this might be another lie". I do not disagree with your views, I just think that some phrases here are contradicting. I like the post and I do not want you to take offence to my comment
ReplyDeleteThanks Vincent, this post is great. I was hoping that one or some of you would offer some response to my criticism of the government's push for the Iraq war. Let me start with a quick comment about the writing. This post is very well written, with a few exceptions. Be careful of your verb tenses. In your second sentence, "Videos of this gas attack by the Assad regime has been released..." you use the wrong verb. Should be "have been released," right? Also, this sentence, "The U.S with the help of Russia, a strong ally of Syria are trying..." In this sentence, you should have written "is trying," because your only subject is "The U.S." Nouns in prepositional phrases ("with the help of Russia") cannot be the subject.
ReplyDeleteNow, to the crux of your argument. This is such a difficult issue for me. I think you advance a very compelling argument. Two weeks ago I would have agreed 100% with you. I originally supported the strikes. However, the more I think about this, the more I am suspect. Please understand, I am in no way implying that I think the strikes against Syria are a conspiracy, or relate in any way to the Iraq War propaganda. I believe the videos and the images are real, and I don't think any of this is "a lie." My issue is with the seeming randomness of the "red line" or the "international norms." When I hear the argument that "President Obama wants to send a clear message to the rest of the world that the U.S will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons," I cannot help but hear the message, "...but President Obama does not want to send a message about genocide in Africa, human rights violations in China, or the previous two years of horror in Syria." Obviously, I know the president does not support these atrocities. No one does. However, what is so much more horrible about chemical weapons that the U.S. feels the need to strike without the support of its U.N. allies? There is an inconsistency in our foreign policy that I an uncomfortable with. There seems to be another variable in the equation?