Since 2011 Syria has rocked with violence, eventually civil war. Initially peaceful protests against the Assad government quickly escalated to thousands of deaths and the destruction of a country. The Syrian conflict is something that Washington and the U.N. have avoided, even while privately—and sometimes openly—questioning what is to be done. Is it time that the U.S. intervened in the Syrian civil war?
In early June, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and the U.S.-GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee hosted a briefing on “Crisis Syria: Going Where?” featuring Ms. Mona Yacoubian, Senior Advisor, Middle East at the Stimson Center; Mr. Ian Pannell, Correspondent for BBC News; Professor David Des Roches, Senior Military Fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University; Ms. Sharon Waxman, Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee; and Professor Paul Sullivan, Professor of Economics at National Defense University and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. Dr. John Duke Anthony, Founding President and CEO of National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, served as moderator.
The Syrian conflict has been different than all other recent political unrest in the region; war has erupted, and fighters against the Assad regime have ranged from disaffected Syrians to foreign Islamist mujahedeen come to fight. Recent casualty figures have estimated a conservative 100,000 deaths, mostly of civilians. Mona Yacoubian, former Senior Program Officer on the Middle East at the U.S. Institute of Peace, stated, “The situation on the ground is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe.” While further explaining the horrors of war, she continuted, “There are three constants from the very beginning that I would argue are responsible for how Syria got to where it is today.”
1) An intolerance of protests—peaceful or not
The Arab Spring caused turmoil throughout the region, but many governments were able to work out the difficulties to some degree relatively quickly. Within Syria however, the government reacted with brute force against the protestors, refusing to compromise.
2) The Syrian opposition has been divided
Even though war broke out, and the opposition agrees that the Assad government needs to go, they often times refuse to work together. Yacoubian explained, “They have been unable to coalesce around a vision of what a post-Assad Syria would look like.”
3) The ignorance of the international community
The United Nations has not acted upon the crisis in Syria; Yacoubian argued that the failure to act has resulted in more deaths. “The international community has been essentially at a stalemate since the beginning, unable to forge a consensus of how to handle the situation in Syria.”
Syria’s civil war does not bode well for its neighbors across the region. As the conflict spreads we see the potential makings of instability that stretches from the Mediterranean to Bagdad. Ian Pannell reported, “This time last year the United Nations was quoting nearly 9000 dead; now it is something in the region of 90,000.” He further continued, “It is as messy and complex as you can imagine.”
Refugees in the millions are fleeing into the border countries, yet their opposing and conflicting views accompany them, and will be the cause of more contention. Yacoubian commented, “May was the most violent month in Iraq in five years…no doubt fed by the conflict in Syria.”
So what should be done? Professor David Des Roches stated that “68 percent of Americans said they do not support military action in Syria if diplomacy or sanctions fail.” He further explained that if the U.S. does become involved it needs to be all or nothing; Syria is not something our military can tip-toe through.
Professor Paul Sullivan adamantly encouraged action in Syria. “This could have been dealt with months ago—it wasn’t. It’s getting worse, and it’s pulling in the rest of the region.” With the amount of people killed, families displaced, and children orphaned he stated, “The timidity is astonishing, and it’s not just timidity coming out of Washington, it’s all over the place.”
Syria has been in limbo, as the international community has, up until President Obama’s announcement to support the rebel factions, made every effort to avoid the political web that surrounds it. But the conflict continues to grow, and affects more and more innocent lives. Sullivan pleaded, “this is about people”—100,000 deaths, and millions displaced are not numbers that can be ignored.
Photo: Syria Freedom House (cc).
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Syrian Civil War: How Did We Get Here?
June 21, 2013
Since 2011 Syria has rocked with violence, eventually civil war. Initially peaceful protests against the Assad government quickly escalated to thousands of deaths and the destruction of a country. The Syrian conflict is something that Washington and the U.N. have avoided, even while privately—and sometimes openly—questioning what is to be done. Is it time that the U.S. intervened in the Syrian civil war?
In early June, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and the U.S.-GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee hosted a briefing on “Crisis Syria: Going Where?” featuring Ms. Mona Yacoubian, Senior Advisor, Middle East at the Stimson Center; Mr. Ian Pannell, Correspondent for BBC News; Professor David Des Roches, Senior Military Fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University; Ms. Sharon Waxman, Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee; and Professor Paul Sullivan, Professor of Economics at National Defense University and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. Dr. John Duke Anthony, Founding President and CEO of National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, served as moderator.
The Syrian conflict has been different than all other recent political unrest in the region; war has erupted, and fighters against the Assad regime have ranged from disaffected Syrians to foreign Islamist mujahedeen come to fight. Recent casualty figures have estimated a conservative 100,000 deaths, mostly of civilians. Mona Yacoubian, former Senior Program Officer on the Middle East at the U.S. Institute of Peace, stated, “The situation on the ground is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe.” While further explaining the horrors of war, she continuted, “There are three constants from the very beginning that I would argue are responsible for how Syria got to where it is today.”
1) An intolerance of protests—peaceful or not
The Arab Spring caused turmoil throughout the region, but many governments were able to work out the difficulties to some degree relatively quickly. Within Syria however, the government reacted with brute force against the protestors, refusing to compromise.
2) The Syrian opposition has been divided
Even though war broke out, and the opposition agrees that the Assad government needs to go, they often times refuse to work together. Yacoubian explained, “They have been unable to coalesce around a vision of what a post-Assad Syria would look like.”
3) The ignorance of the international community
The United Nations has not acted upon the crisis in Syria; Yacoubian argued that the failure to act has resulted in more deaths. “The international community has been essentially at a stalemate since the beginning, unable to forge a consensus of how to handle the situation in Syria.”
Syria’s civil war does not bode well for its neighbors across the region. As the conflict spreads we see the potential makings of instability that stretches from the Mediterranean to Bagdad. Ian Pannell reported, “This time last year the United Nations was quoting nearly 9000 dead; now it is something in the region of 90,000.” He further continued, “It is as messy and complex as you can imagine.”
Refugees in the millions are fleeing into the border countries, yet their opposing and conflicting views accompany them, and will be the cause of more contention. Yacoubian commented, “May was the most violent month in Iraq in five years…no doubt fed by the conflict in Syria.”
So what should be done? Professor David Des Roches stated that “68 percent of Americans said they do not support military action in Syria if diplomacy or sanctions fail.” He further explained that if the U.S. does become involved it needs to be all or nothing; Syria is not something our military can tip-toe through.
Professor Paul Sullivan adamantly encouraged action in Syria. “This could have been dealt with months ago—it wasn’t. It’s getting worse, and it’s pulling in the rest of the region.” With the amount of people killed, families displaced, and children orphaned he stated, “The timidity is astonishing, and it’s not just timidity coming out of Washington, it’s all over the place.”
Syria has been in limbo, as the international community has, up until President Obama’s announcement to support the rebel factions, made every effort to avoid the political web that surrounds it. But the conflict continues to grow, and affects more and more innocent lives. Sullivan pleaded, “this is about people”—100,000 deaths, and millions displaced are not numbers that can be ignored.
Photo: Syria Freedom House (cc).
