AS: Government and Politics: Report on the current crisis in Syria

The crisis in Syria started in March 2011 when protests started for the release of teenagers that had been arrested and tortured for painting revolutionary slogans on school walls; security forces opened fire on the protesters killing many of them. By 2012 the country was declared as being in a state of civil war with more than 100 000 fatalities, although President Assad denies that Syria is in a civil war saying “it’s been attacked by tens of thousands of foreign jihadists fighters allied to Al Qaeda.” In 2012 2 million Syrians had fled to surrounding countries like Turkey as refugees and 4 million were displaced internally.
On August 21st chemical weapons were used in Ghouta killing around 14 000 civilians 426 of which were children, it was suggested from very early on after the attack that the Sarin gas was used by the Syrian government its self on its own people but President Assad shot down these allegations saying that “no one has verified the credibility of the videos and photos” –the videos and photos being what suggested that the Sarin attack was carried out by the Syrian government. But a UN report was published on September 16th 2013 stating that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Sarin gas was used in the attack on August 21st 2013, although the UN inspectors do not place culpability, many experts have interpreted the report and say that the attack firmly looks like it’s coming from the Syrian government. Reasons behind this are: that there was a suggested 1 ton of Sarin gas used in the attack in Ghouta and the rebels would not have been able to get hold of that amount of Sarin gas, the types of rockets that were used during the attack –an M14 artillery and a 330 mm- never used by the rebels before also that they needed large vehicles to send the rockets up which the rebels do not have and finally they were able to trace the rockets back from the impact point to where they came from and on 2 different occasion the UN say that the start point was the Qasioun mountain the headquarters of the republican guards. By the August 30th Obama was discussing the idea of using “limited” and “narrow” military action against Damascus as the chemical attack was on the outskirts of Damascus; but in the UK when David Cameron held a vote in the House of Commons on whether the UK should use military action in the Syria he was defeated by the government by 285-272 he accepted this defeat stating “ I strongly believe in the need for a tough response to the use of chemical weapons but I also believe in respecting the will of these House of Commons” this then ruled out joining US led strikes. Cameron has ruled out military action in Syria as he lost the vote in the House of Commons because after invading Iraq in 2003 and having troops stay there for 8 years and not finding any weapons of mass destruction the British public-“whose views are reflected by the British parliament” as said by David Cameron in the House of Commons on August 30th 2013 - don’t want a repeat (according to opinion polls by The Independent 2/3 of the British public oppose strikes)
Russia is a strong ally of Syria’s for 3 main reasons: firstly Russia has its last foreign military base outside Russia in Syria, secondly Syria buys a large amount of Russian military exports and Russia need the money and lastly, Russia hates the idea of any international intervention against countries such as Syria as they see it as being a cold-war style western imperialism and ultimately a threat to Russia. So when Barak Obama suggested military intervention Vladimir Putin Russian president warned “the American people and their political leaders” that