A Time to Act

The White House yesterday reported that the Syrian government used sarin gas, a chemical weapon, in its ongoing civil war that has already cost 70,000 deaths. President Obama had previously warned that the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” for President Bashar Al-Assad’s morally bankrupt regime. To stop the bloodshed, America and its NATO partners must intervene in Syria and not shy away from their duty.

The Obama administration is rightly proceeding with caution, waiting for inarguable corroboration of intelligence reports received from Britain, France and Israel. Soil, urine, and hair samples from Syrian villages have conclusively tested positive for chemical weapons. America once spent a decade and trillions of dollars in Iraq over nonexistent weapons. Surely more should be done for confirmed chemical weapons.

It is clear that intervention will be difficult and complicated. After the complicated interventions of the last two decades, including Russian intervention in the North Caucuses, the Balkans War, and the Afghanistan and the Iraq Wars, it is clear that intervention is not just a matter of invading a country and attempting to deal with the aftermath. Regardless of what path the international community decides to embark on, it must be one that garners international support and cooperation.

But the situation is Syria is dire, and there is no sign that the danger posed to civilians will ameliorate in the near future. The civil war is at a stalemate, with rebel forces controlling several major cities and the government putting on a strong resistance. There is a severe refugee problem, with 100,000 Syrian refugees in overcrowded refugee camps located along the Syrian-Turkish border. Nearly 70,000 people have already passed away during the three-year-long conflict. It is clear that without intervention, many Syrian civilians will continue to perish while the stalemate between the government and the rebels shows no signs of subsiding.

Previous UN action on the Syrian humanitarian crisis has been stymied by Russia and China, but these troubling developments should prompt America to crystalize international opposition to President Assad’s widely perceived illegitimate regime. Intervention in the face of the impending humanitarian crisis can be done through various mechanisms, whether it be via NATO just as it was in the Balkans and in Libya in a successful, lightweight military operation that ousted longtime dictators, or through a coalition of willing Arab nations such as Qatar and Turkey, who wish to end the regional disturbance caused by the civil war.

Regardless of what method of intervention the world decides to choose, one thing is obvious. Al-Assad has crossed a line by using chemical weapons on innocents and dissidents. President Obama must keep his word—it is time for action in Syria.