Syria: Can the U.S. end the conflict?

  

At this very moment, the country of Syria is experiencing a tremendous amount of atrocity through the civil war that they are fighting. The fighting started in 2011 when peaceful protests began to rise up in the country of Syria, expressing how the dictatorship they were under was intolerable. These protests were soon cut down, with the government quietly silencing the activists. This eventually led to extreme actions, where rape, kidnapping, and torturing took place. Soon military forces were ordered to open fire on protesters. The people of Syria would not stand for for such barbarity to continue, so they began to fight and fire back. This civil war that they are experiencing was ultimately caused by government extremism, but some believe that it's meant happen as a re-balancing of power through religious aspects. Either way, this entire situation needs to be halted immediately.

Though it has been questioned if the United States should involve themselves due to the consequences that may result if there is no intervention. In my opinion, intervention of any sort should be last on the list of options. Honestly, Syria needs to handle its own problems because the last time the U.S. intervened in a conflict of this sort was in Afghanistan's 1980's civil war. We shipped weapons to Taliban forces (an extremist group) giving them the opportunity to take power over the dictatorship in Afghanistan. This eventually led to more chaos throughout the country. Then, if we send in soldiers to deter conflict, many American lives will be lost. It seems as if political intervention is the only way to quiet the war that rages on. If a peace treaty can be formed between Assad and the rebel forces the war will have a foreseeable end in the future, but this is even a stretch. Syria needs to handle this conflict before it starts to drag others into the battle.
                       
 http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021724454_syriaanswersxml.html

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