You’re probably sunburned beyond recognition from Labor Day weekend, still nursing the hangover you’ve been avoiding since the Friday pregame. Slowly, the haze is clearing from your college football festivities, and you’re just barely slogging through your classes. Back to reality — and I hate to tell you this, but it’s not pretty.
I shouldn’t discredit how informed we are as college students, though — I’m sure everyone knows that on Thursday, President Barack Obama announced he planned to use a limited number of precise missile strikes to attack Syria in response to a chemical attack that killed more than 1,400 civilians two weeks ago. On Tuesday, Congress will come back from its summer recess, quite like our sunburned, collegiate bunch, to decide whether to give Obama the green light to strike the Syrian government and military — and possibly flick the first domino in a winding path of international consequences.
If the U.S. was declaring war on the Syrian government to definitively end the conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people in the last two years, it would be in our best interest to keep these strategies a secret and hit them when they least expect it then send in our own troops, costing lives and money the American public doesn’t want to lose. But the White House is being purposefully transparent — and we’re not ending the conflict ourselves.
Iraq is still fresh in our memories and vocabulary. What we’ve heard in the news about Syria strikes a nerve: weapons of mass destruction, evil dictators, rebel insurgencies and extremist factions. It’s easy to compare apples to oranges if they’re both rotten.
A search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq resulted in a full-blown war that has scarred our country domestically and tarnished our international image. But please, while we wait for Congress to make a decision, let’s think a little further than what our memories may allow.
Syria is an incredibly complex country made of many different religious and cultural entities. Most citizens are Sunni Muslims, while Bashar al-Assad and his government are Alawites, another Muslim sect. While diversity of religion has not been a severe problem like in other countries in the Middle East, Assad’s authoritative regime and that of his father before him have set up Syria for civil war. A protest spurred by the Arab Spring against the government was shut down mercilessly in 2011, starting a massacre with no end in sight — even if we do attack Syria.
Obama’s decisions so far have been criticized from both sides harshly — to the Syrians and the Arab League, he’s not doing enough to balance out the conflict to give the rebels a chance to fight against Assad. Russia and Iran are breathing down our necks, trying to protect the most powerful military base in the region from an American attack. And now it’s our turn as Americans to voice an opinion.
When we think about the possibility of striking Syria in the next week or two — whether or not we agree with that — let’s not call this a humanitarian action. We are neither capable of saving Syrians from the bloodshed they’ve experienced daily for the last two years, nor are we able to stop the destruction of amazing historic cities like Aleppo and Damascus. We can’t guarantee that refugees from the conflict will have a better life in the camps set up all over the region.
We can’t save the world anymore, and we shouldn’t have to try.
America has long attempted to act as a white knight and tried to bestow democracy upon other nations — regardless of what those other nations want. I could mention most wars in the past 40 years to demonstrate this kind of holier-than-thou thinking. Save X from X because we can, because we’re America.
At this point, our involvement is a political statement to punish Assad and deter future leaders from using weapons of mass destruction. However, a solution in Syria is not going to come from us. It’s an international responsibility to help Syria get back on their feet once the conflict comes to a close. For now, all we can do is give Syria the opportunity to fight a fair battle for the liberty they deserve. That’s American.
Daniela Guzman is a journalism senior. Her column usually runs on Mondays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 9/4/2013 under the headline "We’re not the heroes if we strike Syria — but hey, that’s alright"
