America's intervention in Syria - Essay Example

? America's Intervention in Syria This paper focuses on Syria’s crisis and the feasibility of America’s intervention. This paper begins by describing the situation and the historical background of the conflict and how it escalated to humanitarian crisis. As outlined in this paper, America’s intervention in Syria is faced by several hindrances thus America has to balance between its interests and the cost of that intervention in terms of human costs, humanitarian, economic, security and polarizing challenges. America has previously intervened in other crisis like this such as in Egypt and Iraq though Syria’s case has been complicated by failure of China and Russia to adopt a resolution by the United Nation’s Security Council. This paper therefore recommends against military intervention but a diplomatic and politically negotiated solution for the benefit of both Syrians and America. Introduction The uprising in Tunisia ignited the turning point in the leadership of many Arab countries. In what begun within the social media, it is now clear that the uprising in Tunisia was a significant event in the Arab spring. It took only one year since this uprising begun in Tunisia and now Syrians are fighting to overthrow the Damascus regime led by their authoritarian leader Bashar al-Assad. Despite the many deaths that have occurred in other countries such as Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt due to the same fight against dictatorship, innocent Syrians continue to die. It is also important to note that Syrians who are persistently seeking to overthrow the government and Bashar regime has constantly faced severely and violent crackdown from him. The increasing violent attack on Syrians by Bashar regime has not only led to the death of many Syrians, but has presented a serious humanitarian crisis in the nation. As stated by (), the number of Syrians who have died in the violence stand at seven thousand since the beginning of the violence in March this year. Moreover, the matter has been complicated further by the rejection by China and Russia to adopt a resolution on the matter by the United Nation’s Security Council. Although the certain interventions have been successful in the past like in Libya where dictator Gadhafi was brought down, intervention in Syria is tricky and the feasibility of United States intervention is in question. Background of the Study and History Syria is an Arab nation found along the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea within the Middle East. This nation is very diverse in terms of both ethnicity and religious even though many citizens of the nation are Sunni Arab Muslims. Civilization has taken place in different nations since many years and centuries, however, Syria can be rated as very young in terms of civilization. Although its boarders were drawn over a hundred years ago by the European colony, it has not adopted the modern democracy with regards to national governance. Currently, the nation is in the center of a serious humanitarian crisis resulting from violence between government forces and National Coalition of Revolution and other militia groups (Hasan, 2012). The conflict in Syria begun when the peaceful protesters mainly inspired by revolution in both Tunisia and Egypt begun challenging the dictatorial regime led by Assad in late March 2011 (Unham, 2013). The response from the government was not only severe, but exhibited the highest level of atrocity never witnesses in the country. The government begun raping, kidnapping, killing and torturing activists as well as their family members. This never deterred many protesters but only served to energize their operations. The government then directed and increased atrocities to small children and women mutilating their bodies and dumping by the roadsides (Unham, 2013). When military begun shooting direct on the protesters, the civilian responded by shooting back thus the fighting escalated from a mere protest into civil war. The year 2012 marked the midst of highest atrocities ever when Organized and armed civilians turned and formed rebel groups. The government responded by sending army across the nation thereby terrorizing Syrians into submission by bombing and shelling major towns and the neighborhoods. The Assad regime did not only use chemical weapons but also used other weapons with mass destruction on civilians and properties (Hasan M., 2012). This resulted into the other nations joining the rebels either because they wanted freedom and democracy or because they are jihadists and thus hated Syria’s secular regime (Tabler, 2013). During the better part of the year 2011 and 2012 the rebels advanced further but Assad is coming back thus each side is gaining a strong ground. Political Issues The American inversion in Iraq in the year 2003 was very significant in shaping the perception of Americans and the authoritarian leaders of the Middle East. Former president of America George Bush was criticized for invading Iraq by both the friendly and Arab nations. However, it is clear, the Bush administration created significant cracks on the walls of Middle East dictators by encouraging freedom, justice and democracy. This event proved Americans strengthening power in terms of politically, power, militarily, economically and technologically. Syrians are among the many Arab nations who have begun appreciating the importance of the above aspects in the development of their nation. However, it is worth noting that America’s intervention in Syria is delicate thus a number of issues have to be put into perspective. The biggest question for International and American policy makers has always been to resolve the conflict without destabilizing the region or fighting the interest of America. This issue has been complicated with reported use of chemical weapons and the feasibility of military intervention. Analysts have also warned that military intervention has several implications including human costs, humanitarian, economic, security and polarizing challenges (Atlas, 2012). There are fears that the intervention will topple Bashar but at the same time may create great instability after the intervention such as that being witnessed in Egypt and Iraq. While the United States have the moral imperative to intervene and bring a stop to the current humanitarian crisis in Syria, it is worth noting that such intervention may result into a serious post intervention crisis. The post intervention impacts and the anticipated destabilization of the nation is also a key hindrance to military intervention. The Syrian uprising which has been turned into armed rebellion is in the third year and doesn’t seem to stop any time soon since both the government and the armed militia are entangled into a bloody struggle for attrition (Zisser, 2013). Early in the beginning of the conflict, many analysts and the American officials had argued that the Bashar regime would be forced out of power though the main question is how it would be articulated within the timeframe set (Hassan, 2013). It is also important to note that both Assad regime and the opposition face different challenges with respect to taking great control of Syria thus there is possibility of opposition and the government curving out greater strongholds hence prolonging the conflict. American intervention may not be feasible due to the need to balance between its allies and its own interests because of the support that Bashar is receiving from its friendly nations. The formidable opposition in Syria has faced violent response from the government since the conflict begun. Moreover, the regime has also been supported by Iranian, Hezbollah fighters and has received material support from Russia (Johnson, 2013). This has resulted into the regime’s counteroffensives in certain areas in Syria. The Syrian military has also continued to use artillery, air strikes and other militias supporting the regime to punish attacks especially in areas where opposition seem to be successful (Unham, 2013). The differences in ethnic ideologies tends to shape the nature of the conflict with certain members of Syria’s ethnic and minority groups and Sunni Arab majority viewing the conflict differently. In this regard, Washington officials have believed that the fighting is likely to continue even after Bashar’s regime is toppled (Zisser, 2013). Political analysts have argued and anticipated that humanitarian crisis is expected to go even higher as a result of America’s intervention thus have called for negotiated political settlement. The war in Syria has resulted into regional humanitarian emergency amid extensive damages to both urban and certain rural areas. Both government and the regime have war crimes attributed to them by different reports. Reports indicate that more than hundred thousand have died since March 2011, two million fled Syria, and over four million people displaced internally (Johnson, 2013). A United States’ humanitarian program places this figure at over one billion and anticipates that this figure would rise to over 2 billion by the end of 2014 if the conflict is not resolved (Hassan, 2013). While innocent citizens continue to lose their lives and properties destroyed, both the regime and the government are not ready to take any kind of retreat. The Obama administration seems not to be having a solid plan to articulate this intervention thus should stop it altogether. The president of The United States Of America and his administration have always called for the resignation of Assad and his regime from the year 2011. Obama has also persuaded the United Nation’s Security Council to condemn Assad regime. In fact the government of America has recognized the opposition and National Coalition of Revolution as the legitimate party representing the people of Syria (Tabler, 2013). In this respect, the Obama administration has provided them with assistance in terms of nonlethal aspects. Obama is not only seeking congressional approval to use force in Syria but is also in the processes of preparing its military plans with respect to various contingencies (Petrou, 2013). America however has always held that military solution is not viable in the case of Syria and thus negotiated political settlement is most feasible Conclusions The uprising witnessed in many Arab nations is a true testimony of how Bush administration created significant cracks on the walls of Middle East dictators by encouraging freedom, justice and democracy through intervention in Iraq. Syrian civil war is not different and is as a result of uprising against dictatorship of Bashar regime. The Syrian military has continued to use artillery, air strikes and other militias supporting the regime to punish attacks and opposition thus resulting into a formidable standoff. The uprising against Bashar regime has not only led to the death of many Syrians, but has presented a serious humanitarian crisis in the nation. While America has always intervened in many countries, analysts believe Syria is a delicate case thus the United States has to balance between its interests and allies and the anticipated post intervention instability. It is also anticipated that American intervention may create a serious humanitarian crisis thus there is need to consider negotiated political settlement. Political analysts have also warned that military intervention in Syria have several implications including human costs, humanitarian, economic, security and polarizing challenges like the current challenges facing Egypt. America must therefore consider several issues for the planned intervention to be successful without post humanitarian crisis. References Atlas, P. M. (2012). U.S. Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring: Balancing Values and Interests. DOMES: Digest of Middle East Studies, 21(2), 353-385. Hasan, M. (2012). Intervention in Syria won't work, so how do we stop Assad?. New Statesman, 141(5092), 21 Hassan, O. (2013). Constructing America's Freedom Agenda for the Middle East: Democracy and Domination. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Johnson, P. (2013). Intervention In The Third World A Case For Masterly Inactivity?. Forbes, 191(11), 30. Petrou, M. (2013). The Damascus dilemma. Maclean's, 126(36), 1. Tabler, A. J. (2013). Syria's Collapse. Foreign Affairs, 92(4), 90-100. Unham, M. E. (2013). Sacrificing The Law Of Armed Conflict In The Name Of Peace: A Problem Of Politics. Air Force Law Review, 69155-197. Zisser, E. (2013). The Failure of U.S. Policy toward Damascus. Middle East Quarterly, 20(4), 59-65. Read More