War in Syria

Civil War in Syria Syria is an example of a failed state because the regime of Bashar al-Assad has failed to uphold the fundamental duty of every government: to protect its citizens from harm. The loss of basic services, including electricity, internet, and other necessities, has become prevalent throughout Syria's most populated regions. The Syrian army has resorted to shelling its own cities, inflicting massive casualties on its civilian population.

With Syria now wholly divided along ideological lines, with the rebel forces of the Syrian Free Army waging a guerilla revolution against the Assad regime, the civil war currently raging means Syria has devolved into a failed state.

Only when the tyrannical government is overthrown and normalcy returns to Syria will the nation regain its status as a functioning member of the global community.*** The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria, caused by the merciless drive towards civil war by dictator Bashar al-Assad and his militant actions, has exposed the limitations of an American foreign policy apparatus motivated more by pragmatism than compassion.

When the authoritarian regimes of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt were threatened by the revolutionary power of public protest, the State Department and other wings of the federal government offered indirect assistance and moral support to the dissenters. Although many international foreign policy experts agree with the prevailing assessment that "the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have diminished the United States' political will, military capability, and diplomatic credibility to conduct future humanitarian interventions" (Kurth 2005, 87), America's influence on the Egyptian and Libyan "Arab Springs" cannot be understated.

The ultimate fall from power of both Gaddafi, who chose to turn his army against the Libyan people, and Mubarak, who sensibly sought refuge abroad, demonstrated that America is still capable of delivering democratic freedoms to those who seek it; provided there is a clear strategic objective to be secured. While the tactical advantages of backing the Egyptian and Libyan uprisings were evidently clear at the time, American officials have been confronted with a far more complex dilemma as the Syrian conflict has ignited a full blown civil war.

Many impartial observers have pointed out the increased risks for American foreign policy interests if intervention is eventually forced, with the prospect of a proxy war involving Iran and Russia, two traditional adversaries who continue to resupply Assad's forces with arms and munitions (Worth and Cooper, 2012).

The lack of American support for the Free Syrian Army, which has organized itself into a coherent fighting force despite being overmatched by Assad's arsenal of missiles and bomber jets, was made strikingly clear by viewing the PBS Frontline video report The Battle for Syria. As an American citizen who appreciates this nation's status of military and economic supremacy, watching a young man who previously studied economics at the University of Aleppo thrust himself headlong into the fray of urban warfare was intensely powerful.

It was obvious throughout the video that the Free Syrian Army was grossly undersupplied and disorganized, and despite their courageous willingness to fight tanks with pick-up trucks, the freedom fighters would clearly benefit from American intervention. It would be disingenuous to criticize the American government's inconsistent approach to the Syrian crisis without also acknowledging that crucial circumstantial shifts have occurred in the region.

The increasingly totalitarian regime of Egypt's ostensibly legitimate leader Mohamed Morsi, the tragic killing of an American ambassador in Benghazi, Libya by militant terrorists, and Israel's air campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip are all external factors affecting the Obama administration's policymaking process.

While these concerns are admittedly complicated, the scenes of civilian devastation depicted by the video The Battle for Syria reminded me of the President's declaration on March 28, 2011, made during his address to the nation on the Libyan intervention, when he reminded the world that "in just one month, the United States has worked with our international partners to mobilize a broad coalition, secure an international mandate to protect civilians, stop an advancing.