Archive for September, 2013

Nearly 12 years ago the world was recovering from the aftershock of the 9/11 attacks. The smoke was still billowing from the aftermath of the collapse of the twin towers when America and its allies aligned themselves along with the worlds support to bring the perpetrators to justice. Justice was being sought for the 3000 who lost their lives; they were someones brother, sister, husband, wife, they were someones children and their lives perished because of someones political agenda. Soon following the events of 9/11 America embarked on its global manhunt for the criminals at large and in the process of hunting them down America and its allies engaged in war simultaneously with two countries. They attacked Afghanistan to hunt down OBL and invaded Iraq for its WMD’s. We soon learnt that Iraq was not harbouring any WMD’s in their inventory and neither was OBL discovered in Afghanistan rather he was found in a garrison town of Abottabad in Pakistan. However, America till this day is adamant that the steps taken were necessary and that the collateral damage of war was justified in bringing down the rouge elements responsible of terrorizing civilization.

However, I argue that America has a biased agenda. Almost a decade following the 9/11 massacres, the “Arab Spring”  revolution began and it resulted in the swift expulsion from power of 4 governments: Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. However, 2 years, 6months and 1 week later, the Syrian people are starved of their justice and are suffering under the dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad. The question comes down to this: what is regarded as the “red line” which would result in an international UN led intervention? If the loss of more the 100,000 people is not enough than what about the chemical weapons attack? Sure, some would claim that no one knows who really used these weapons but, in any case, whether it be the opposition or the Assad government who used them, the initial use of the weapons on civilian populace should have drawn the international governments from around the world to disrupt, dismantle, and remove from power anyone operating in Syria and to allow a democratically led government to be installed. 

However, in my opinion, the world powers should be ashamed to let the matter come to the inevitable point of civil war. It took less than 1 month for America and her allies to attack Afghanistan in the hopes of bringing OBL to justice, its been more than 2 and a half years of the Syrian atrocities and the world is sitting on the sidelines witnessing the horrors and realities of war unfolding before them and on their political agenda are schedules and dates for debate on what should be done in the Eastern Arab country. 


Sometimes it makes me wonder how our governments value an individuals life, what protocols are in place for action against dictatorship and extremism and to what extent can we really sit here and watch as Syrian children are gassed to death and human casualties mount. The damage done is Syria is insurmountable and each day that passes more and more civilian casualties take place, it makes me wonder if 9/11 really did unite the world in taking collective action against extremism and to fight for the human cause.




Syrian Intervention: Debate or Protocol