[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n an Article from Independent tells horrifying stories about children living in Syria and how it has affected them. Here is one of them. Ahmed’s father died during a shelling when he was only seven and his corpse was brought back to his family’s home. Ahmed and his sisters didn’t talk for days after seeing it, later Ahmed’s family moved to another village but being forced to flee after heavy bombardment. During one attack, Ahmed became separated from his mother and some of his sisters. When they crossed into Turkey, Ahmed and his sisters ended up following a relative to Isis’ de-facto capital of Raqqa. The little boy was forced to watch beheadings, seeing dead bodies, heads on spikes, lashing and several other brutalities in the streets. When he found his  mother in Turkey he was stuttering so badly that she had difficulty understanding him. He was wetting himself, had trouble sleeping, and would lash out at his family, sometimes beating his sisters and even his mother. After about one year living in a residential center for mothers and their children in Turkey, his mental health has improved. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“I don’t like the planes, or the shells, or bombs, or mines. Some of them are underground, so you might be walking along and the mine explodes and then you die.” [/perfectpullquote] Thousands of families have children going through the same things and some worse than others. The U.S should intervene in Syria because of the effect it’s having on its people.

The Fate of Syria’s Children

Children in Syria are losing parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, and grandparents, and their health is being affected tremendously. Children are being kidnapped, raped, separated for their families and killed. There is no place that is safe for children in Syria. From the same Independent article there is a story about Razan a seven year old girl living in Syria, her father was killed by a sniper and after seeing her father’s body Razan became very withdrawn and wouldn’t speak to anyone. Her family then fled their home following bombardment, and and moved around the city about ten times.

Later they ended up staying with their relatives until the house they were staying in was bombed, with Razan’s mother and youngest sister not surviving. Razan started to show signs of severe trauma, and became terrified of blood as well as panicking was she would see people crying. Razan also started to be aggressive towards her other siblings, bed-wetting and hallucinating. “I like to be alone, to be able to go out and no one kidnaps me. And for there to be no fighters or anything, and no bombing”, says Razan. Children in Syria shouldn’t have to live not knowing if they will live to see the next day, and this is just one reason why we should help them.

Oppressive Government and Casualties

Two tanks that have been destroyed in near a mosque in Azaz, Syria. Image from Christiaan Triebert via Flickr

The reason the war is going on is because of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad. Syria is following the same path as many other Middle Eastern countries with Arab Spring. The Syrians were sick of their living conditions so the Syrians started an uprising to overthrow him. Assad started to use chemical weapons like nerve gas on his own people. Syrians are horrified by the effects of chemical weapons, nations have come together over the years to develop international bans on nerve gases, blister agents, blood agents and choking agents. Overall the Syrian people aren’t safe with Assad in power, because his brutality there has been an estimated 400,000 deaths in Syria as of 2017. If we don’t intervene the number of casualties is only going to grow. As well as help stop the use of chemical weapons, if we don’t it won’t be the last time these illegal weapons are in use.

Opposing views 

There are some reasons the U.S should stay out of Syria as well. Here are two reasons the United States should not intervene in the Syrian Civil War.

Intervention puts the U.S too close to Iran

Not saying the U.S can’t beat Iran on the field but increasing tensions with Iran and renew hostility over Iran’s nuclear program. With Iran already not being a fan of the United States we certainly don’t need to be at war with them. Nor want them to start developing nuclear weapons.

Syria doesn’t pose any threat to the U.S

The United States could also take influence from Israel in this matter and remain neutral. Afterall Syria is half a world away from us and doesn’t pose an immediate threat. There are also things in The Middle East involving Arab Spring that we don’t understand thus should stay out of. Us westerners also may not completely understand the Muslim people thus should stay out of their business. Maybe we could do right by letting them figure out their own problems.

Syrian’s are Suffering

Small refugee town in Lebanese. Image by Photo Unit via Flickr

But those reasons also don’t change the fact that it feels wrong to know people are suffering and then do nothing about it. Conditions in Syria couldn’t really get worse as more than 400,000 people have died and this includes civilians, soldiers, children and government agents. Syrians have been seeking refuge anywhere they can to get away from the war with over 6 million Syrian refugees displaced internationally. Civilians are constantly being bombed, shelled, robbed, kidnapped, and raped. Nowhere in Syria is safe as Assad has ordered attacks on medical facilities, schools and mosques. The Violations Documentation Center, which is a local monitoring group, documented the killing of 446 civilians, including 91 children, from aerial strikes in eastern Aleppo between September 19 and October 18. An eight year old boy Mohammed says, “I am afraid by the war in Syria. It frightens me a lot to think about men surrounding me and pointing their weapons at me.” There is no place safe for civilians in Syria that in why we need to do something to help them.

Overall the Syrian people are are suffering because of the war, the U.S needs to do something, if we don’t thousands more will die in Syria.

Featured image from Felton Davis via Flickr

Children stories and quotes from Independent