By Avishai Rabin, 11th Grade
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “Whether we wish it or not, we are a great people and must play a great part in the world. It is not open to us to choose whether we will play that great part or not.” One of the many attributes of America that makes me proud to call it my home is its willingness to assume the altruistic duty of protecting those who are unable to protect themselves. The Syrian civil war, though, was not ours to partake in. Because of bad experiences with intervention in the past decade we turned our heads the other way and inadvertently permitted President Assad’s atrocities.
Then he started utilizing chemical weapons against innocent civilians.
So that we may secure our own welfare, so that we may secure Israel’s welfare, and so that we may secure the welfare of the civilians in Syria, who were just as innocent as you and me yet were gassed indiscriminately, we must intervene.
President Obama warned the Assad regime in August of 2012 that if the Syrian military used chemical weapons, they would be punished. He issued this threat for proper reasons. The use of chemical weapons has never been allowed in the past and ignoring it now would dissolve any deterrent from America for using these indiscriminate and inhumane weapons. We know that there are ill-intentioned governments in the region and we need it to be as clear as possible to them that using chemical weapons crosses a red line.
Just as Hitler and Mussolini took the world’s inaction in the 1930’s as permission to continue their genocide of Jews and Ethiopians respectively, these governments would take America’s inaction as permission to use chemical weapons and other various malevolent weapons.
My brother, his wife and their 19-month-old-daughter all live in Israel. A few weeks ago the Israeli government provided my niece with a gas-protective tent to protect her from a potential Syrian attack. For the sake of our allies and brethren in Israel, we must ensure that no country feels that using chemical weapons against Israel is a possibility. President Assad demonstrated a willingness to use these weapons on his own citizens, so he would likely also use such weapons against Israeli civilians if he believed it would serve his objectives. Therefore, if this action went unpunished, the results could be devastating for Israel.
People are arguing that this could lead to another Vietnam. Another Iraq. Another Afghanistan. I argue that this is already another Holocaust. A genocide against Syrians. A threat towards all nations of the world.
A country on America’s terrorist list has used weapons of mass destruction. This country is a threat to our and Israel’s safety. President Obama has stated that he does not plans to have U.S. soldiers actually enter Syria, eliminate President Assad, and remain there for the next decade trying to establish order. Rather, if America does intervene in Syria, President Obama apparently plans on executing key military strikes against the Syrian military and chemical arsenal
As President Roosevelt said, America has a great part to play in that world. This is not the time for isolationism. This is the time for the protection of mankind.
Related: 2 Boiling Points of View – Syria: Intervention would break international law
