The Suffering and Fate of Refugees

Throughout the past post 9/11 decade, brewing tensions and differing viewpoints/values between Middle Eastern nations and the United States have greatly increased, due to the terrorist group ISIS which shields itself within dominated Syrian territory. President Trump adheres to the idea that Obama was fully responsible for the horrific growth and destruction of the terrorist group, claiming that Bush “warned America of the risks heavily stemming from the withdrawal of military forces in Iraq,’ Several conservatives and Trump supporters align their beliefs with this notion, stressing that Obama ignored Bush’s precautions, and withdrew military forces from Iraq by 2011. Although Trump is in full support of increasing the presence of the US military within Syria in order to fight ISIS and help minority groups regain land and power, increased military presence will only add unnecessary tension to the Syrian Civil War, which stems from Bashar al-Assad’s deceptive and corrupt actions as dictator. Increased military presence within crisis areas such as Syria would only bring danger and destruction to the United States; deploying American troops will only result in more deaths, violence, and strain between nations. Additionally, even if the US meets the achieved goal and frees Raqqa from the disastrous grasp of ISIS, there is no clear plan for what is to follow, considering the United States would not take control of the land. The greater threat of ISIS supported terrorism wouldn’t recede- in fact, violence would escalate, considering the group no longer has to affiliate themselves with owning land, and has the freedom to plan and execute a terrorist attack against their enemies- the United States.

Currently, Syria is undergoing escalating tensions and uprisings which branch from hatred vs support for Dictator Bashar al- Assad. The full scale Civil War has resulted in over “a half of a million deaths,” due to the staggering conflict between the regime and the opposition; despite peaceful anti-government protests in provincial areas, brutal suppression has accentuated the dire need for the nation’s reform. International responses regarding diplomatic efforts toward the Syrian conflict fail to end violence and suffering, despite “several ceasefires brokered by the United Nations.” The escalation and trepidation of violence and suffering within Syria is further demonstrated by the April 14th chemical gas attack; the US and France fired missiles claiming to destroy “chemical weapon factories” within the nation. This attack acted as “the biggest and most powerful military attack against President Bashar al-Assad’s government by Western powers” throughout the entirety of Syria’s Civil War. In a recent speech, Trump proclaimed that “the purpose of [those] actions [was] to establish a strong deterrent against the production, utilization, and spread of chemical weapons.” However, military strikes may not be the best solution to chemical weapons, considering that the attack was deady to innocent Syrian citizens; the prime minister and Trump should have confirmed the attack with the Members of Parliament before any horrific action was taken. The Syrian government continues to deny their usage of chemical weapons, and if their claims are correct, American involvement in the Syrian Civil War is proven to be unnecessary.

As far as ISIS goes within Syria, their main focus is to “establish an expanding caliphate” which operates under strict Sharia law. This terrorist group is devoted to their unrealistic and skewed idea of returning civilization to the 7th century, ultimately to generate the apocalypse which results in an epic battle of enemy forces (The US). ISIS is a group which pursues unimaginable torture methods and brutal sectarianism in order to gain international attention as well as bargaining techniques. The US intervening and assigning troops to these crisis areas to fight ISIS will only feed into their brutality and cause them to descend into a violent spiral, much worse than currently.

Complicating the War on Terror, Russia, which is also Syria’s ally and our enemy, is on the brink of commencing a war against our nation. Any accidental act of shooting down a Russian plane or killing a single Russian individual, could result in the next World War III, which is why it is critical that we stay out of Syria and other crisis areas.

By trying to assist other nations by giving them our funding, resources, and friendship, we could unknowingly bring destruction upon ourselves. This has happened before; our nation has trained terrorists and provided them with tanks and other violent weapons to fight our enemies, and these terrorists have turned around and utilized our own resources on us. This can be unveiled looking deeper into the 9/11 attack, noting that our nation and military trained several of the al-Qaeda terrorist group. Lack of cognisant American funding is acting as an extreme detriment to our nation’s financial state, and the US is creating their own enemies with their OWN funding and weapons. Staying out of the Syrian conflict may not seem like the moral decision to several American citizens, but it is the absolute only option to protect our nation’s resources and money, so we do not end up with another 9/11 terrorist attack. Additionally, in order for the White House to initiate a national military operation, a tactical and calculated outcome must stem from the strategic plan, there must be a strong purpose to deploy troops to a specific area and that justification must outweigh the risk factors. This is not the case when it comes to Syria, although there is a reasonable chance of achieving a singular objective, to free Raqqa from the control of ISIS, the unpredictability and instability of violent and destructive outcomes toward our nation are not worth the military operation. There is no legal obligation or authorization to execute a strategic military operation on the territory of a sovereign nation. Obama claims to utilize the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in order to justify drone strikes and other acts of terrorism toward Middle Eastern nations, however this law was passed recently after 9/11, making it a skewed resource to use in the modern day world. The terrorist group ISIS did not exist in 2001, and was not at all affiliated with the 9/11 attack, therefore this authorization is not justified toward fighting them. There is no rationale whatsoever for our nation to be involved with Syria’s Civil War, and despite the fact that ISIS is our enemy and the US will not rest until that terrorist group is defeated, it is time to take a step back and stop intervening in the lives of innocent Syrian citizens.

Trump assumes a variety of different stances on the Syrian Civil War, differentiating from Obama’s anti-war mentality and Bush’s dire need to maintain a strong military presence within Middle Eastern nations. After the chemical gas attack, on the Damascus suburb of Douma, Trump “alerted Bashar al- Assad’s regime that there would be a ‘big price to pay’ for the assault.” The following day, Trump then exclaimed that the US would make “major decisions” on the response, claiming that the US will “figure it out.” It is clear from President Trump’s tweets and speeches that he blames Assad for the chemical gas attack, and he refers to him as an “gas killing animal” who is so messed up he would kill the citizens of his own nation. Trump even admits that he has taken “a lot of different positions on Syria.” It is very confusing and infuriating how he has no one stance on the Syrian Civil War and ISIS, however it does seem like he is leaning toward a greater military presence in Syria and is determined to dismantle and defeat both ISIS and al-Qaeda. The President is not only indecisive, debating whether or not he wants to deploy troops in Syria, however he is not taking affirmative action or working toward any larger goal, considering that there are already troops in Syria.

It is also crucial to consider that innocent Syrian civilians are greatly affected by not only ISIS and other terrorist groups, but by American involvement in the war. They live their lives a certain way which is different than the US is used to, and many Americans feel that they need to “rescue” these individuals and “save” them from the overwhelming horror of ISIS. Not only are these civilians accustomed to their life of violence, hatred and deaths on a daily basis, but several of them don’t even want US help, claiming that we are interfering with their lives and we have no place doing that. In fact, the US Ambassador of the United Nations, Nikki Haley, emphasized to Fox News that “Not many of the [Syrian refugees] [she] has talked to, want to go to America,” claiming that a majority “want to stay as close to Syria as they can.” These Syrians who have escaped a world which Americans would claim imprints horrific memories of horror and devastation, are begging to go back to their homeland, claiming they do not want to escape and want to be familiar with what they know/were born into. The US has wasted millions providing resources for these civilians, which they don’t want, or have the education to utilize.