Syria: ConBy: Lena West and

Reva Kreeger

(Syria)

● Oppressive government suppressed political and religious problems (McCaffrey)

● Protests started in 2011 and government responded with full military action (McCaffrey)

● Religious conflict: Assad is Shia and majority of the population is Sunni (McCaffrey)

Background

(Brasil)

● Other countries come in: Hezbollah helping Assad and Shias and other foreign Sunnis helping rebels (Atassi)

● Rebels are broken into many groups (Syria crisis: Guide to armed and political opposition)

● Jihadist groups want to make Syria an Islamic state while other rebels want to overthrow Assad (Sly)

Background

● We want to oust Assad, but…● We want to help rebels, but...● Don’t want to help al-Qaeda affiliated groups but many are dispersed within the rebels (Syed)● Rebel groups are fighting within each other

(Hubbard)● We would be fighting two wars at once: Assad

and al-Qaeda (Hubbard)● Don’t want to make the same mistake we made

in Afghanistan (The Afghan War)

Who are we fighting?

(Syrian fighter)

● Need new expensive equipment: warplanes, ships, submarines (Vanden Brook)

● Helping rebels would cost $500 million annually and keeping chemical weapons under control would

cost $1 billion monthly (Vanden Brook)● Currently US debt is about

$17 trillion and rising

Economic Stress

(Money)

● In Iraq, 4489 US soldiers were killed while 2312 soldiers were killed in Afghanistan (Griffis)

● People cannot deal with another huge war. Many regret going to Iraq. In 2006, just 3 years after war in Iraq started 60% of people were already against it (Poll: 60 percent of Americans oppose Iraq war)

Emotional Stress

● Assad’s military is in cities so air attack could kill more civilians (Pape)

● Land attack would face stiff resistance (Pape)● If Assad falls, al-Qaeda could potentially run

Syria, which would ultimately cause the U.S. to go into another war in the Middle East (Wickham)

Bloody War

● Aid to rebels could end up in the hands of terrorists, threatening our national security (Wickham)

● Russia supports Assad so a war against Syria will add tension between the US and Russia (Calamur)

Bloody War

(Klimentyev)

● Syrian civilians rebelled against Assad-- rebel groups are split into groups that want to overthrow government and groups that want Islamist state

● By helping overthrow Assad,we may be helping the extremist and jihadist rebels.

Summary

(Syrian Rebel with Flag)

● America cannot afford another war after the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan

● Would have to face terrorist groups as well as Assad

● Facing Assad and his allies would be very violent and would increase tension with his allies

● We cannot go to war in Syria in order to protect the rebels and get rid of Assad’s regime

Summary

"The Afghan War." Cold War.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.coldwar.org/articles/70s/afghan_war.asp>.

Atassi, Basma. "Lebanese Sunnis fighting 'holy war' in Syria." Al Jazeera. N.p.,

14 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/lebanese-sunnis-fighting-hol

y-war-syria-201421394828913798.html>.

Brasil, Agencia. "Bashar al-Assad." Nations Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar.

2014. <http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Syria-history.htm>.

Works Cited

Calamur, Krishnadev. "Who Are Syria's Friends And Why Are They Supporting Assad?"

NPR. N.p., 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/08/28/216385513/who-are-syrias-friends-and-

why-are-they-supporting-assad>.

Griffis, Margaret, ed. "Casualties in Iraq." AntiWar.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://antiwar.com/casualties/>.

Hubbard, Ben. "Al Qaeda Breaks with Jihadist Group in Syria Involved in

Rebel...." New

York Times. 04 Feb. 2014: A.9. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Mar.

2014.

Klimentyev, Mikhail. Assad and Putin shaking hands. NPR. N.p., 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 11

Mar. 2014.

<http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/08/28/216385513/who-are-syrias-friends-and-w

hy-are-they-supporting-assad>.

McCaffrey, Paul. "Deep Divisions: Syrian Society And Politics." Points Of View:

Reference Shelf- Arab Spring (2013): 4. Points of View

Reference Center. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Money. Collapse.com. N.p., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

<http://collapse.com/jean-paul/2013/09/26/id270.htm>.

Pape, Robert A. "Why We Shouldn’t Attack Syria (Yet)." The New York Times.

N.p., 2 Feb. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/why-we-shouldnt-attack-syria-yet.html?_r=

1&>.

"Poll: 60 percent of Americans oppose Iraq war." CNN. N.p., 9 Aug. 2006. Web. 10 Mar.

2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/09/iraq.poll/>.

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2013: A.16. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

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N.p., 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/>.

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<http://blog.sva.edu/2013/02/sva-hosts-understanding-the-syria-conflict-through-data-visual

ization/>.

"Syria crisis: Guide to armed and political opposition." BBC News. N.p., 17 Oct. 2013.

Web. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-15798218>.

Syrian fighter. New Eastern Outlook. N.p., 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

<http://journal-neo.org/2014/01/13/rus-prekratitsya-li-krovoprolitie-v-sirii/>.

Syrian Rebel with Flag. Advocacy.net. N.p., 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.umaa-advocacy.net/content/look-syria-developments-around-world-0>.

Vanden Brook, Tom. "War costs could escalate quickly." USA Today. N.p., 31 Aug. 2013.

Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/30/pentagon-war-costs-syria/274898

5/>.

Wickham, DeWayne. "Wickham: Why Obama should not attack Syria." USA Today. N.p.,

2 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/02/dewayne-wickham-on-obama-and-syri

a/2754355/>.