Back in the spring of 2011 Syria began a brutal civil war that crippled the infrastructure leaving 3 main factions fighting for power. The United States decided to intervene and support the Syrian Rebel Army in retaliation for President Bashar al-Assad’s suspected use of chemical weapons against the people of Syria. If this were in fact accurate and America’s only reason for uniting forces with them was to overthrow a tyrannical leader, then I believe America would have been in accordance with the Just War Theory.
Yet history shows us that we (Americans) usually have an ulterior motive behind the silver lining. If we look back to the year 2003 and the invasion of Iraq we again see that in the peoples’ eyes there was a just reason for why we were sending our armies. Weapon of Mass Destruction were claimed to be possessed by Sadam Hussein and were rumored to be linked with Al Qaeda, the very same group that claimed to have orchestrated the terrible events on September 11th. We went to Iraq to rid the world of Saddam, a radical Sunni Muslim. We won!
We set up a new government. What have we accomplished? We have created an ally. One that would favor us over former allies such as Russia, China and France. Could this be happening again in Syria? Could we be supporting a coup d’etat in order to gain easier access to the gulfs premier oil fields, disguising it as a patriotic fight, or a necessary conflict in order to protect us from the bad guys? We have done it before, Russia vs Iran, in Egypt and Libya to name a few examples. We take sides with new regimes in hopes of securing their allegiances.
However, it is easy to perceive that the true interest in Syria is not to provide Democracy and to relieve a country of an oppressive leader but rather more likely to ensure that the oil pipelines that run through Syria can and will be restored to profitable status. It’s a lot easier to rally around the idea of helping a country in need yet somewhat selfish to realize that me cheering at the Gas Station when gas drops under 2 dollars is what causes terror on both sides of this war. This doesn’t sound in harmony with the Just War Theory to me.
The question that was posed was: Is it possible to beat ISIS militarily. Yes it is, but then who is next? After we “Carpet-Bomb” them or kill their families as some of the GOP presidential candidates suggested, another radical idea against Westernization would arise. I do believe that military force will help protect us, and will be necessary now that we have created this beast we must deal with it. What we as Americans should be questioning is, ‘Why do they hate us? ” Because you can’t kill an idea. So how do we change this idea or concept that they have of us?
I can firmly say it is not through profit sharing or by letting them be included in our own self interest. It has to be something more, something that we have the hardest time finding: understanding. For ourselves, our neighbors here as well as our foreign neighbors. We have got our heads chained to a wall and are satisfied with only looking and perceiving the “shadows on the wall” as Plato teaches us. We contently keep watching the world as the media portraits it, and let others dictate the happenings of of the world for their own personal gain.
If this class has taught me anything it would be to question and to escape the chains that force me to look only forward. It scares me how much we sit by and watch, much like the prisoners in the cave did, and be satisfied. How do we beat ISIS? We beat them by solving our own personal deficiencies. Tragically, like we heard from the presidential candidates, the primary solution to this problem of terrorism only involves smart bombs, surveillance programs and “justified terror” on our part.
Yet at the same time our western ideas would continue to undermine their cultural identity by promoting a worldwide culture to benefit the global corporations. These policies will only breed further fanaticism and fear with the people who already feel betrayed and angry. We can change this by encouraging instead a personal desire to be fully informed about the world around us, giving up our personal desires that drive us only into greed, envy and pride.
We need a movement that will lobby governments and the UN, making it clear that the most effective way for governments to contribute to a reduction in both poverty and violence is not to scale up funding for development, but to scale back the forces of globalization. By taking a stance and shifting our economic policies to support local and national economies and to get rid of the mindset of taking advantage of the undeveloped. This will set us on the path toward a more harmonious world, one that can be filled with understanding rather than fear.