Arab Spring: Syria

DJay Lee

Mr. Busby

AP US Government

Dec 8th, 2013

The US and Syria

Introduction

Since the Cold War and commercialization of petroleum as a major energy source, the US has had various influences on Middle East. Under the name of democracy, the US stepped into domestic affairs of Middle Eastern countries to secure its own interest, whenever political or social turmoil took place. From Iranian intervention to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US gave multiple long-lasting effects in Middle East. Recently, another political and social strife erupted in Middle East: Syrians started to resist their oppressive regime. Having claimed to be the vanguard of democracy, the US felt the obligation to intervene in Syria. However, its own economic and political hardships made it hard for the US to take substantial action; a great controversy over whether the US should step in arose. This paper is composed of three parts: it covers Syrian situation in detail; it gives an account of US actions so far regarding Syria; finally it suggests a possible future direction of the US.

In Syria

Syria is a country in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. People have lived there since the beginning of the first civilizations. Its territory is as big as South Carolina and has population of 22 million (Fisher). Syria has a diverse ethnic and religious background, but most Syrians are Arabic and Muslims, to be specific Sunnis. The modern state, Syria, is a young country with its borders having been drawn by European colonial powers in the 1920s (Gale).

Syria is in the middle of a civil war between the rebels and the government. As a consequence, over 100,000 people were killed and over two million people became refugees (Fisher).

The situation traces back to decades ago. In 1970, General Hafez al-Assad, a former chief of the Air Force and defense minister, seized power out of a long violent conflict with neighboring countries (Gale). His government became...