Syria, once a major proponent of chemical weaponry, has lost its creditability on the world stage. Brought out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, Syria has through continuous upheavals, revolutions, and counter revolutions against foreign domination; political foes countering between fundamentalists, military, and civilian rulers. Understanding this constant flux, one needs to look at the history and political landscape of Syria. What drove this nation to stockpile these horrific weapons and unleash them onto a populace ill equipped to counter its effect?
Syria was established after World War II, it was promised self-rule and independence, however due to the war, the French did not honor this agreement until the war concluded. Within the first decade of independence, Syria found itself under multiple rulers, army officers, who gained power by overthrowing other army officers and eventually in 1954 a coup was led to re-establish civilian rule. In 1958, Syria and Egypt joined and formed the United Arab Republic with Egyptian president Nasser as its head relegating Syria into a secondary role with its political parties dissolved. This lasted for three years and army officers once again seized power and dissolved the UAR. In 1970, Hafez al-Assad, the defense minister and member of the Syrian Baath Party, overthrows the sitting president and took power in Syria. He arrested and imprisoned the president and the previous leader of an earlier coup, Salah Jadid. During his tenure, battles were fought with Israel and Lebanese forces and he fought off internal threats from the Muslim Brotherhood and dissenters to his power. It was from those groups that whispers of chemical warfare started to come to the surface. Human rights ...
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... 'red line' warning on chemical weapons.
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Jouejati, Murhaf. “Syrian Motives for Its WMD Programs and What to Do about Them.” Middle
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
The uneven amount of unfairness in Syria is fueling the violence. The reasons why Syria started a war because there were not much freedom, unemployment, widespread corruption, etc.
The Syrian Crisis began almost three years ago. Since then, the killings, the bombings and the fleeing haven’t stopped. Obama’s administration was blamed for letting the Assad regime, which is an Alawite minority, tyrannize its Sunni people who are a majority, for all this time, and for allowing the radical jihadist power, a part of the opposition, to benefit from the uprising.
Since Syria has such a young population they are exposed to new ideas and they aren’t afraid to stand up for change. In March 2011, there were protests against the government and al-Assad. While protesting a group of teens painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall, and they were soon imprisoned. This enraged the rest of the Syrian population because the group of teens were being tortured by the government. Once the government released them there was more protesting. The police shot and killed a 4 protesters. While at th...
An attack on the Syrian state would fall within the boundaries of the international concept of the responsibility to protect. The crisis in Syria has escalated by protests in March 2011 calling for the release of all political prisoners. National security forces responded to widespread peaceful demonstrations with the use of brutal violence. The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad refused to stop attacks and allow for implementation of the reforms requested by the demonstrators. By July 2011, firsthand accounts emerged from witnesses, victims, and the media that government forces had subjected innocent civilians to detention, torture, and the use of heavy weaponry. The Syrian people were also subjected to the Shabiha, a largely armed state sponsored militia fighting with security forces. Al-Assad continually denied responsibility to these crimes and placed blame on the armed groups and terrorists for these actions.
The Syrian Uprising is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Ba'ath government and those seeking to oust its regime. The conflict has many complex entities with factions present that are seeking their own foothold in the country’s struggle over power. However, this was not always the case and an examination will take place into weather the conflict can be defined as either a civil war, an insurgency or a proxy conflict. The definition of the type of conflict is relevant as it is critical to whether or not intervention is necessary and how states may go about it, for instance, the laws of war are different from the laws of armed protests. In the case of Syria, it is vital for the UN to understand the progression of the conflict to legitimise what aid is to be given, if any, and to legally intervene in the conflict. The UN would need to use the type of conflict to draw aims of any intervention, looking beyond deposing Assad for his alleged war crimes of chemical weapon use.
...s exporting Syria weapons, the rate of travel to Syria from Russia with materials has increased dramatically.
While the term “civil war” seems to be the “preferred term for the ongoing violence in Syria” (Keating, Would You Know a Civil War When You Saw One?), it is evident that the war has seeped out of Syria’s borders as other countries have attempted to intervene. Herbert Wulf writes in his essay, The bumpy road to re-establish a monopoly of violence, that “A characteristic of recent wars is a disruption or loss of the state monopoly of violence, as it can neither be adequately exercised nor can the rule of law be maintained” (Wulf). As much as the violence seems to be contained w...
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
We, the citizens of Syria, have decided to no longer endure the trials of living in a country such as this one. We will successfully overthrow our current abusive government and make this country our own. Our government no longer supports our human rights and because of that we are given right to overthrow it. The reader of this document will be provided with our new choosen rights and given evidence to support our claims for separation.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing conflict and has, to date, resulted in close to 500,000 casualties, consisting of both civilians and fighters. War has damages to every aspect of a country, in Syria for example, nearly two million children are without parents and life expectancy has been reduced by fifteen years. The people of Syria face constant threats, whether it be the well-known terror group ISIS or air strikes from Russia, chemical weapons or disease, bystanders are constantly in the line of fire.
"'War of Nerves': A History of Chemical Weapons." Talk of the Nation 8 May 2006.Opposing
Similar to past catastrophic events, Syria’s civil war began as a chain of significant circumstances which lead to eventual turmoil. Although the Arab Springs, a series of uprisings against dictators in northern Africa and southwest Asia, was a monumental reason for the Syrian civil war, climate change induced drought may have been a heavy contribution to the uprising. Water is essential to human life aiding in agriculture production and livestock care as well as basic human nourishment. Without this life supporting element, rural people flooded to the cities in droves seeking their basic human needs. Along with millions of rural Syrians, Iraq refugees were also flocking to the Syrian cities for comfort and aid. With overcrowded cities, minimal
War and Children, two things that should never go together, but happen too often. Especially, the war in Syria. Many Syrian children don’t have access to education, clean water, food and optimum health care. Schooling and Prescribed Medication have become rarities. The Syrian War is the most damaging war for children in the area’s modern history not only with physical violence but the mental scarring is just as damaging. With the death tolls rising, children are the main targets. There are many who try to escape, but even when they think they’re safe the unpredictable can happen.