James Hamilton
Mr. Everdeen
English Comp 1301
31 March 2014
United States Intervention in the Syrian Civil War
Syria is a nation in complete disarray. The Syrian rebels are on a mission to remove President Bashar al-Assad and the entire Ba’ath government. They have received help from organizations such as the Al-Qaeda. The Syrian government is trying to stop the uprising at all costs, and have even resorted to extreme measures such as using chemical weapons to put an end to the rebellion. With the use of chemical weapons, known terrorists involvement, and inhumane treatment of the Syrian people, there is undeniable evidence that the United States should step in to halt the fighting and help negotiate a peace treaty between the rebellion and Syria government.
The United States has decided to do nothing towards interfering directly with the war, but have been trading weapons with the rebels. There are plenty of arguments that could be held for either side. The question is: who is creating the biggest impact on the lives of the Syrian people? The government has been closely monitoring the rights of the Syrian people for almost forty years, while the uprising started by the rebels have forced many Syrian citizens to relocate to nearby countries in refugee camps. The United States could standby actionless and risk the Syrian government winning the war and maintaining control of the Syrian’s citizens actions, or they could send the troops to let the two sides work out a peaceful resolution. Even possibly help the rebels overthrow the government.
The first article discussed is “Syria: Intervention Is In Our Interest.” John McCain explains that our interference in the Syrian Civil War is absolutely necessary. The next article, “Syrian Rebels Sketch Peace Plan That Omits Demand for Assad’s Ouster” describes the willingness to have a peaceful resolution by the rebels and the back-and-forth exchanges between the United States and Russia. Lastly, “Syria in Fragments: The Politics of the Refugee Crisis” explains the hardships the Syrian refugees are facing, and why the United States should step in for relief.

Dahi, Omar S. "Syria in Fragments: The Politics of the Refugee Crisis. Dissent"
(00123846). Winter 2014, Vol. 61 Issue 1, p45-48. 4p. EBSCOHOST. MasterFILE
Premier. Hill College. 03/18/2014. http://www.ebscohost.com/

This article begins by describing the atrocities that are going on in the Palestinian refugee camps by comparing the current living situations to a massacre that took place at the Shatila refugee camp in September 1982. The refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus was home to around 150,000 of the 500,000 registered Palestinian refugees and has dwindled down to 20,000 refugees that are under siege and fighting starvation. In August 21 of 2013, the rebel regime used a sarin gas attack on the city of Ghouta. This led to a United States strike on the Syrian rebels that was averted last minute due to the rebels agreeing to remove and destroy all Syrian chemical weapons. The Syrian rebels have agreed to allow United Nations inspectors to search weapon warehouses to insure that Syrian is not housing any more chemical weapons that could be used on innocent civilians. This agreement has opened the eyes of the United States that the rebels are open to negotiations and can lead to finding a peaceful resolution to the destructive civil war taking place in Syria.

Barnard, Anne and Cumming-Bruce, Nick. "Syrian Rebels Sketch Peace Plan That Omits Demand for Assad's Ouster." The New York Times. Feb 12, 2014. Mar 18, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/world/middleeast/syria.html?action=click&module =Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.c om%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%23%2FSyria%F365days%2F&_r=0 The authors of this article begin by explaining the peace agreement orchestrated by the Syrian opposition coalition. It is a