Shedding Light On Syria

By Andrew Randall on November 15, 2012

 

The other day I read an article from, “America’s finest news source,” the Onion. Though I actually believe that the Onion is more reliable than Fox News, for those who you who have never heard of it, it’s a wholly satirical site. Regardless, it’s hilarious and I seriously suggest people give the website a look every once in a while. With that being said, the article that I read was titled, “Having gone this far without caring about Syria, Nation to finish what it started.” As I read through the article, which featured quotes such as, “Despite recent reports of increasingly rampant acts of violence carried out by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, millions in the United States reportedly remain totally dedicated to ignoring the plight of Syria’s 22 million residents and will continue to do so until the task is complete.” However, as I began to share the story with my friends, I soon realized how ironically true it actually was. Many of my friends hadn’t even heard of the Arab Spring, let along Syria’s involvement in the whole ordeal. So here I am to simplify things for all of you. Hopefully after reading this, you’ll be able to have a nice fireside chat about it this winter with your family, friends, or coworkers; thus, making you look more like an educated, upstanding citizen, and less like a philistine, uninformed, naïve and self absorbed young adult. Let us begin.

The Arab Spring:

In order to truly understand the situation in Syria, you have to have knowledge of what the Arab Spring is, where it started, and why it started. First off, no, it has nothing to do with the season of spring, but if it helps you, picture the opposite of spring break and you are left with the situation in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and now Syria. The Arab Spring is a term used to describe the revolutionary waves of protests that are occurring in the Arab World today. Why, you ask? Well, outside of your comfortable suburban home across the Atlantic Ocean, things are a bit different. For one, dictatorships still exist, along with absolute monarchies, human rights violations, government corruption, extreme poverty, unemployment, and economic disaster. All of this coupled with the fact that the government in many of these nations limits any form of civilian participation is a recipe for rebellion – especially once these people begin to realize that they literally have no political voice. As higher education has been more readily available in the East, young, tech-savvy students have found ways to exploit their abusive governments through social media websites such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. While you comment on that embarrassing picture from last Friday night, these kids are retweeting videos of governments opening fire on civilians who are protesting. Everything you take for granted in the United States in terms of civil participation is viewed as a threat to these governments.

So, when Tunisian Mohamed Bouzazi was unable to find work and a municipal inspector confiscated the fruits he was trying to sell, he headed to the city council. But without even listening to him, the city council threw him out. He was unable to articulate anything to his government, and because of this he bought some gasoline, and set himself on fire on December 17th, 2010. The Tunisian Revolution had begun.


A Late Bloomer:

Syria is important and unique due to the fact that the country is a recent part of the Arab Spring. On March 18th, 2011, protestors gathered in Daraa after Friday prayers. The Baath party, headed by President Bashar Assad, had recently arrested and tortured children who had been spray painting anti-government messages on public property, and the people of Syria were voicing their opinion of the matter. The movement wasn’t actually intending to overthrow the Baath party initially, but rather to push for government reform. Specifically, the people wanted more rights and less dominance by the elite. However, the government didn’t react lightly to the event. Security forces opened fire, and rained tear gas over the protestors. Throughout the spring and summer of 2011, the cities of Homs, Hama, and Latakia steadily protested, and yet the government continued to brutally crack down on the participants rather than look for policy changes.

Last February, regime forces went even farther essentially conducting a massacre in the city of Homs. The city was crushed with bombs and rockets for weeks, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. Assad denies allegations against him, claiming that he orchestrated the attacks, claiming that the only people that were actually killed were security forces, regime supporters of the Free Syrian Army, or the terrorists and gang members of Israel who in his eyes have instigated the violence in Syria. However, according to U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross, “As long as Bashar al-Assad is in power in Syria, the future of Syria is going to be unfortunately a very bloody one.”

Effects and The Future:

The U.N. estimates that almost 7,500 people have been killed in Syria’s uprising; however, many people believe that the numbers could be significantly higher. Barack Obama has ordered Assad to step down from power, and has a plan for democratization in Syria. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Media access is limited in Syria, there is no freedom of the press, and outside reporters must risk there lives to cover anything going on there. To give you an example, American war correspondent Marie Colvin and a French photojournalist by the name of Remi Ochlik were both victims to a lethal shelling in Homs.

In short, all the countries involved in the Arab Spring want what we take for granted, a voice in our government. The problem is, you can’t just step into an institution and magically make it a democracy. The United States went through a civil war, and twenty-seven amendments to our constitution to get to where we are today, and we still don’t have complete equality. It’s going to take longer than we think to fix Syria, but it’s imperative that everyone stays informed on the situation abroad. Even if it means just doing a Google search on Syria and clicking on a brief news article, keeping your eye on Syria is important. You don’t want to end up like 29-year-old Daniel Greene of the Onion who stated, “I know literally nothing about the situation, and I intend on keeping it that way.”

 

For more information on Syria click here.

http://ir-ingr.livejournal.com/1185799.html

http://www.theonion.com/articles/having-gone-this-far-without-caring-about-syria-na,30346/?ref=auto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iqLaPS4Zv8

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/14/syria-crisis-explained_n_1263647.html

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