The Syrian Crisis stems from the problem with President Assad. I'd like to argue that his presidency is not actually a president. I believe that he is more a dictator than a president because his family has been in power for over 40 years and he has until this point been able to ignore calls for more freedom. A dictator remains in power for an extended period of time and gains his power by force. While he didn't actually use military action to gain power, he ran uncontested in an "election" and won with roughly 97% of the votes, running uncontested two terms in a row and winning 97% each time seems higly unlikely to me. However, his family has maintained power of an extended period and placed laws on the Syrian people that have restricted their freedoms, namely the 1963 Emergency Law that is still in place. (It might have been repealed very recently, there are conflicting sources stating whether it has or hasn't been repealed.) The people want the regime to end, an end to the Emergency Law, and end to the extrajudicial tortures and killings, the release of political prisoners and a democratic society. The opposition has taken a political and military stance against Assad. Politically they have formed the Syrian National Council. Militarily they have formed the Free Syrian Army, which is made up of army dissidents and is poorly armed and not well trained. Some fear that civil war will result from a political upheaval against Assad. Initially outside groups turned a blind eye to the oppression, but after Ghadafi in Libya, the Arab League ordered economic sanctions. When Syria refused to comply with the League's demands for reform, the League turned to the United Nations. The UN has issued a request for sanctions to be placed on Syria (from the UN) however Russia will not comply.
Currently the U.S. status is to use economic and international sanctions on Syria due to their actions. The exact text of the U.S. Executive Order is below:
"The Order prohibits (1) any U.S. person from engaging or "facilitating" transactions with the Syrian government; (2) any U.S. imports of Syrian petroleum or petroleum based products; and (3) any U.S. person from exporting or investing in Syria."
I feel that the Executive Order is the right road to take as opposed to threatening war. However, as Russia has close political and economic ties with Syria (due to oil), I feel that economic and trading sanctions will not be enough. Syria will be able to maintain enough stability worldwide to keep some trade occurring. However, war is not the right option here. We must realize that countries need to become what they want by themselves. We have this nasty habit of putting people in power and in the end that country goes to war with us or undergoes a revolution and puts someone in power that hates us. We need to stop meddling with the politics of other countries. However I believe that we need to have these sanctions because maybe Syria will realize that something needs to change in the political practices.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12482309
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13855203
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16878214http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/world/middleeast/russia-rejects-draft-un-resolution-on-syria.html
Currently the U.S. status is to use economic and international sanctions on Syria due to their actions. The exact text of the U.S. Executive Order is below:
"The Order prohibits (1) any U.S. person from engaging or "facilitating" transactions with the Syrian government; (2) any U.S. imports of Syrian petroleum or petroleum based products; and (3) any U.S. person from exporting or investing in Syria."
I feel that the Executive Order is the right road to take as opposed to threatening war. However, as Russia has close political and economic ties with Syria (due to oil), I feel that economic and trading sanctions will not be enough. Syria will be able to maintain enough stability worldwide to keep some trade occurring. However, war is not the right option here. We must realize that countries need to become what they want by themselves. We have this nasty habit of putting people in power and in the end that country goes to war with us or undergoes a revolution and puts someone in power that hates us. We need to stop meddling with the politics of other countries. However I believe that we need to have these sanctions because maybe Syria will realize that something needs to change in the political practices.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12482309
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13855203
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16878214http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/world/middleeast/russia-rejects-draft-un-resolution-on-syria.html