Students are often stereotyped to be unaware of events going on in the world; in the case of Syria, they seem to be living up to this stereotype.
“What’s in Syria?” student Dillon Anson ‘15 said.
“Syria doesn’t sound too fun” said fellow student Justin Benjamin ‘15.
“I think students are unfamiliar with modern history in the Middle East let alone understand the religious turmoil within the region” said Social Studies teacher Brian Huberty.
The situation he refers to is the conflict in Syria, in which the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is accused of using chemical weapons against his own people, who are rebelling against his government. President Barack Obama is trying to make a case to the American people to intervene in Syria.
Though now the president is trying to go through diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict. Obama told Fox News “We will pursue this diplomatic track” he said. He goes on to say “I fervently hope that this can be resolved in a non-military way.”
Even for those with knowledge of the situation, it’s unclear if intervention is necessary.
“As a combat veteran, I have a hard time siding with military intervention when the grounds for such are a bit skeptical.” said Huberty. “I think the president has done a poor job of making the case to the public for ANY military intervention. Even the use of drones or air strikes, in my mind, would need to be explained in a better way than what our executive and for that matter legislative branch have done.”
The night of Sept. 10th, Obama gave a speech to the nation outlining his reasons for going into Syria, where he’s indicated his approval for a Russian- backed idea to put Syria’s chemical weapons into international hands for disposal.
Obama said to the nation in his speech, “It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed. And any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies.”
Obama says that (for now) theres “hope for the future” for Syria, and there’s even hope that students will be aware of what’s going on.