Syrian war efforts are muddled to say the least – with the involvement of the US, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, the Gulf States, and regional demographic/political/military groups ranging from ISIS to Hezbollah and the Kurds, the chaos is boundless. With blurred lines in loyalty and even less agreement among the political & military groups that have loosely banded-together, it has precipitated the perfect storm for abandonment of agreed upon international law by many, if not all parties involved. United States and Russian interests are diametrically opposed in this Syrian proxy war, and both have used force when it seems specifically prohibited to do so under the UN Charter 2(4). Speaking from a formal standpoint, it seems objectively true …show more content…
Russia and the US have been hurdling just accusations of violations against international law practically since their involvement started. The primary issues at hand have been the lack of diplomatic action and unilateral military decisions made without consent of the UN Security Council. In 2015, brief but high level diplomatic meetings were conducted after the Iran nuclear deal was reached, but yielded nothing to speak of and too late (NYT Editorial Board, 2015). In May of 2016 it was announced that several policy experts and ex-officials agreed that Assad’s removal as a requisite for resolution of the Syrian conflict must be rescinded in order to achieve an actual agreement; one official stated that it is no longer a “question of morality of Assad, but the practicality” (Allam, 2016) However, this was prior to Trump’s taking office and prior to an expression of concern or interest in the region on his part. All of that changed with the April launch of sarin attacks against Syrian civilians
There are claims that they have been leading fighters from Afghanistan and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, which Tehran denies. In the United States President Barack Obama has called Assad a "tyrant" and insisted on his departure since 2011. But Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that Washington would discuss "options that could perhaps reignite the political process and bring about a political transition in Syria". Washington has spearheaded an anti-IS coalition since September 2014, conducting airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. And in Russia, whose only Mediterranean military base is in Tartus on the Syrian coast, says it is fighting "terrorists", referring to all of Assad's opponents. But the West accuses it of primarily targeting moderate rebels rather than the Islamic State (IS) group. Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged Tuesday to continue supporting Damascus militarily, while calling for a "political solution" involving all groups to end the
The problem in Syria is that millions of people are suffering. The suffering will not stop until the war is resolved. The struggles that the people of Syria face are a direct result of the war. Organizations will continue to lessen the suffering by providing aid, but they will have no effect when it comes to ending the war. The harsh truth is that end of the war is nowhere near an end. The problem is that no side is strong enough to win the war. Since the start, the Syrian Government Army has gotten weaker and no longer has the power to take over cities controlled by the Free Syrian Army (Dorell). The result of this is the mass destruction the country has faced. The Free Syrian Army continues to fight back in response to the airstrikes from the Syrian Government Army(Dorell). No side has been able to pull away and win the war. Foreign involvement has only made the situation worse. The Russians have taken the side of the Syrian Government while the United States have taken the side of the Syrian Rebel Army. Russia has attempted to help eliminate the terrorist groups supporting the Syrian Rebel Army, in reality, many civilians were hurt in the process (Dorell). The countries involved in the crisis have tried to organize peace treaties and cease fires multiple times, but they all failed (Dorell). Looking at these recent events, the war does not seem to be ending anytime soon. Therefore, the
President to warrant military action; as were the many thousands of civilians killed over the past years in the Syrian civil war between government forces, ISIS, and various other sectarian groups vying for power in that country, including some backed heavily by the Iranian regime, and others enjoying support from
The parties involved in many civil wars are often not just limited to the country in which the war is actually taking place. Often, other countries will give aid to one side of the conflict or even involve their own military forces. Recent examples of such occurrences include Russian, American, and Turkish involvement in the present Syrian Civil War and the NATO bombing campaign during the Kosovo War. These countries expend massive amounts of resources and lose great numbers of troops in these conflicts often to uncertain ends. This begs the question: Why do foreign powers involve themselves in the civil wars of other countries? It is possible that such interventions occur because the intervening party believes that they could make strategic gains by doing so. Another theory is that countries intervene when they feel that there is a moral obligation to get involved in the conflict (Kim 2012, 19). However, even when circumstances seem to be in favor of a foreign power intervening, they do not involve themselves. This paper will test these hypotheses by examining the intervention by the United States and Russia primarily in the current Syrian Civil War and attempt to discern their motives for
As of recent, there is an ongoing debate over the response of the Obama administration related to the events occurring in Syria and the potential violation by the Syrian government of customary international law and relevant treaties and conventions in the use of chemical weapons against its own people. The conflict itself has history which is required to be thoroughly examined before conclusions can be placed and actions are to be carried out. The Syrian Civil War has not only affected the lives of Syria’s citizens but has becoming a pressing issue in direct international relations between countries like Russia and the United States. Obama’s administration has their own response to the crisis at hand and believes that a military strike is a fully legal move to make given the situation present at hand. According to the evidence, it would seem possible that a violation has not occurred and that the threat by Obama’s administration to use force in the Syrian crisis stands on illegitimate grounds because the proceedings are done by Syrian government on their own grounds. However the atrocious actions committed by the Assad regime could in fact provide legality to military intervention by the United States. Finally, the focus will be to determine whether chemical weapons are in fact the sole factor for international intervention.
Assad has been manipulating its own country and making its people be afraid (“CNN”). Genocide has occurred and is ongoing,” Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chairman of the panel, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, said in a statement (“Bruce”). We also have heard that the commission on Syria has repeatedly recommended referral of the crimes to the International Criminal Court, but no action has followed from the Security Council, where Russia, a permanent member and the closest ally of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, wields a veto (“Bruce”). Also the US strikes inside Syria an effort to “degrade and ultimately destroy the U.S intervention because of the chemical attack and the deaths of hundred civilians (“BBC”). Hezbollah, Iran’s ally and Israel’s enemy, is now fighting alongside Assad’s forces (“HuffPost”). What moscow insists to only have peace in syria and settlement because of all the violence and stop terrorizing pure Syrians(“Huffpost”). Russia has about 6 million muslims in their country (“Huffpost”). Well Russia (and China) insists that humanitarian interventions should rightly be authorized by the U.N. Security Council (where Russia wields a veto). But the U.N.-sanctioned, NATO-led war against Mu’ammar Gaddafi's Libya the prime minister
The American system of government and society has been one aimed at the promotion of individualism and an overarching protection of values since its original establishment. In many ways, this was reflected in the aims of the original settlers who traveled from England to escape religious and political persecution. Upon establishing independence from Britain and creating a new nation, the founding fathers cemented this focus on individual freedom in their creation of the Constitution and, in particular, the accompanying Bill of Rights. The First Amendment in particular provides a strong protection of individual liberties by guaranteeing such core rights as freedom of speech, assembly, and press. However, perhaps the most significant—and most debated—element of the First Amendment is the clause that establishes separation of church and state.
A current international event that affects the United States of America would be the civil war going on in Syria. Ever since March 15 of 2011, uprisings have been breaking out in Syria. Millions of innocent Syrian people are suffering. According to the Mercy Corps, the war has killed 220,000 people and counting. These poor Syrians are fleeing to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Thousand are attempting to flee each day, but many do not end up making it. Why should the Syrian civil war matter to the United States? For one, if the civil war spills into Iraq, since the countries border each other, no good would come from that. The United States recently ended the war in Iraq in 2011, and we wouldn’t want anything to start
With the Syrian conflict starting as a civil war and then escalating into a conflict amongst many other countries I can now understand the how this escalation happened. Within our simulation I could try to compare the outside forces looking inward into a country. As a comparison Krussia would be our Syria, outside forces were sanctioning them to relinquish their terrorists and almost freezing them out of many of our country trades. This had happened to Syria on May 18, 2011 with the US imposing against Syria with the US Treasury Department saying this, “...any property in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons in which the individuals listed in the Annex have an interest is blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them…” after this it was a domino effect; the European Union banned the import of Syrian oil and formed a sanction against Syrian government because of their mistreatment of the people. From our simulation and our class lecture this seems to be a credible commitment problem within the syrian government to its people. With many outside sources trying to form a collective action solution for Syria and with the Syrian people wanting their basic Human Rights it was a double edge sword for the government. Recently there has been action taken against Syria though with a warning to evacuate portions of syria surrounding a government airforce base which supposedly were the warships that had attacked the city of Khan Sheikhoun and had chemical weapons loaded onto warplanes. This statement from BBC after the chemical bombing says, “Activists and witnesses say warplanes attacked Khan Sheikhoun, about 50km (30 miles) south of the city of Idlib, early on Tuesday [April 4], when many people were asleep…The explosion sent a yellow
The movie and the book version of The Color Purple showed both similarities and differences between each other. The difference between the two versions would be the structure of them. The book version have been composed with Celie’s letters that are mostly addressed to God while the movie does not show the letters to the audience. The movie only mentioned one letter from Celie where the letter was read with a voice over. The book depicted Celie in having to deal with her womanhood as she expressed her inner thoughts and emotions with God.
As previously read, Syria has turned into a mess, all because one person, the president, decided not to hear the people and abuse his power to do what he wants. This needs to be stopped as soon as possible not only is it violating the human rights declaration but it's also simply inhumanitarian, killing babies and blindly killing civilians, what a misery syria has become.
The “just cause criterion is central in the “just war” doctrine. When assessing the sufficient “just cause” reasons the principle of self-defence is undoubtedly tolerable. It can be extended to the reason of assisting aid to victims of oppression or external threat (Moseley n.d.). Following this principle, the mass murder of the Syrian civilians by the government forces that reached nearly 40000 (Aloyo 2014) create a justified cause for the USA and the international community in general. However, in the case of Syria using forces against the aggression as a whole will be an impossible task, as both parties
Copy number variation (CNV) contributes immensely to human diversity and disease because it can affect protein-coding genes. It is important to research copy number variations because we could have the potential to assign pathogenicity to a particular CNV. Large CNVs were initially discovered from “cytogenetic studies of individuals with Down syndrome and intellectual disability” (Ruderfer et al., 2016, p. 1).
I feel it is my responsibility as an American citizen to offer you a critical perspective, in regards to the crisis in Syria, perhaps not seen through the eyes of someone in your distinguished position. Let me speak the words that a share of our fellow citizens have had silenced by the authority of power figures who claim that the United States has an obligation – an obligation to seemingly “mother” other countries, providing protection against any and all harm. I will admit that the conflict overseas is undoubtedly a tragedy and by no means should it be overlooked. However, it is not the responsibility of the United States to play peacemaker among nations, and it certainly does not allow for the disregarding of our own immediate issues.
This has put quite a roadblock in the United Nations efforts at resolving the issue because, no matter what they try and pass to put into action, someone is liable to veto the resolution. Therefore, Syria is not getting much help from the U.N. and their people are continuing to suffer on both sides of the war (Russia Para. 1).