Talon Magazine Practicum CO 385/485: Syria Is Bleeding

By, Saleh Alotaibi

Push Al-Assad Out

It is early in the morning and you are sitting around the breakfast table with your family sharing a meal. All of a sudden you hear a large booming noise and the windows of your small apartment shake. You can see smoke out the window rising up into the sky and you turn toward your family in fear. This was the case for many Syrian people as the Syrian Civil War has continued to ravage their country.

Syria has captured the attention of the world and people around the globe are concerned with peace and safety in the region. Some countries like Russia, Iran, China and the Lebanese group Hezbollah support the current president of Syria, Bashar al Assad. On the other hand, the United States, France and some countries in the Arab League would like to see the removal of Al-Assad. Both supporters of Al-Assad and those who believe that he should be removed from office have various reasons for their interest in the region. However, the best solution would be to remove al-Assad and empower the Sunni forces so that they can then fight the battle from the ground.

Since the early spring of 2011, there has been an international armed conflict which has resulted in the Syrian Civil War. The conflict began with nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government who responded violently. The situation that started the fire was a peace protest where each side says that the other began firing. Because of this event and the result of a civil uprising, different militant opposition movements came out and many people defected from the Syrian Army so the situation went from a civil uprising to an armed rebellion. This later developed into a civil war. ISIS grew fast in the area when al-Assad started fighting his people.

The US supports Syria's main opposition alliance, the National Coalition in an effort to remove al-Assad from power. The US believes that Al-Assad has abused people’s human rights and committed terrible crimes against humanity. They believe he has murdered thousands and thousands of his own citizens and has even used chemical weapons against them in the past. Al-Assad is a tyrant who has caused pain for his citizens and his country. He has done nothing positive for the people and has only terrorized them. It is clear that he should be removed from power as quickly as possible.