World News by Kwaku Avoke

The civil war in Syria has made headlines on the top news networks and been the focus of the world for months but if you look now the focus has shifted as news always does. Award shows take place and stars accept their awards, new tech releases draw fawning crowds, and as all news is destined to be it gets pushed further and further back until it is no longer in the public eye. You may see it mentioned somewhere in a death statistic or some politician making an empty comment but as all news is destined to, it falls out of the public eye. The war no doubt continues as I write do all of us understand what it all meant to us?

War is death and confusion, blood and gore, pain and heartbreak, and a plethora of other words rife with emotion. However once your able to take a step back what you get chief of all is a supremely human lesson that serves to provide insight to all . I repeat the situation is ongoing but from the information available to me I will do my best to give a simple explanation of the conflict and the interest that President Obama held in it.

Extending from the spirit of rebellion spurred on by the Arab Spring in 2011, initially peaceful protests turned violent when responded to with force by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Anger over unemployment, years of dictatorial rule, and corrupt government practices were the basis of the protester turn rebel uprising.

The government forces and pro-government paramilitary groups that have sided with Assad fight to maintain control of the country and maintain the Assad regime. The rebels however constitute groups that agree with a future for Syria without Assad, but beyond that are splintered in their views for the future for Syria. The most extreme differences in rebel opinion are the Islamists seeking Theocratic state under the Qur'an and more liberal secular and youth groups. These competing world views mean that even if the Assad government were to fall, years of fighting would likely take place to determine the fate of Syria.

Religion is bound to be brought up in any discussion of middle-eastern politics and it plays a role in this war as well. Islam, like Christianity and Buddhism, have sects. Different groups that fall under the umbrella of the religion with difference in different ways including ways in which to practice the faith, belief in interpretations of the faith, or even blood line. Some religious communities tend to be more supportive of the regime than the others, fueling mutual suspicion and religious intolerance in many parts of the country. President Assad belongs to the Alawite minority, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam. Most of the army generals are Alawites. The vast majority of armed rebels, on the other hand, come from the Sunni Muslim majority. The war has raised the tension between Sunnis and Shiites in the neighboring Lebanon and Iraq. Religion plays a role in this conflict but I wouldn't list it as a central point.

The use of chemical weapons having recently been confirmed drew the interest of President Obama in upholding the ban on their use. War is war and people both combatants and innocents are bound to die but the international community for the most part has decided the wide range and inaccuracy of this type of weapon makes it unethical for use. The stated reason from President Obama is that if we were to allow a group to use a chemical weapon without repercussion, then it would set a poor example showing that no one would enforce the law. The majority of the people of the U.S oppose an invasion. I believe that our nation is war weary at this point. Involving ourselves in a war that could possibly take years to sort out in addition to financial concerns at home make an intervention an unsavory idea.

Syria's civil war can and probably does have entire books written on it already but the above is what I believe to be a simple and clear outline of the sides and motivations of the war and our interest in it. These basics provide a solid foundation by which you could further research the topic yourself or carry on a conversation on it using your own knowledge of the region to extrapolate upon the piece above.