This Week's News on Syria

Since the news broke, and the videos started to spread that the Syrian Government had used chemical weapons in an effort to wipe out opposition forces in a Syrian town; the news media has been in a mass frenzy reporting all the latest updates as they developed these last few weeks. In a brief description, here is some of what is going on. President Obama in his address on Tuesday spoke to the American people to develop his case for a military strike on Syria (to read the transcript for the full speech or watch it http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/running-transcript-president-obamas-sept-10-speech-on-syria/2013/09/10/a8826aa6-1a2e-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html.  He appealed to our sense of humanity, and stated that if we did not do something it would set a precedent that other countries could break this international law. He stated his intentions for a “targeted military strike” and nothing more. He took the debate to congress which they reconvened on Monday to take a vote, however the idea of a military strike may no longer be necessary due to the fact that Russian President, Vladimir Putin, Russia an ally with Syria, proposed that the Syrian government release all their chemical weapons to international control. On Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet with Russia in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss this solution and the details.  And breaking news as of Thursday August 12, Syria’s U.N. ambassador formally asked to join the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is in our interest now how the Obama administration will react, and how the talks will go.

            What started as a civil war in Syria has now spread to effect global politics as a whole. Tension with Russia continues to grow after Russian president Putin wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times earlier this week. He mainly wrote it in response to President Obama’s address on Tuesday night. Many American politicians are upset and up in arms with some of the comments he made against America being “exceptional.” As we mentioned, the tension started because Russia is allies with the Assad regime.

Sources:

Washington Post Staff. (2013, September 10). Full Transcript: President Obama’s Sept. 10 Speech on Syria.WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved September 12, 2013, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/running-transcript-president-obamas-sept-10-speech-on-syria/2013/09/10/a8826aa6-1a2e-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html.

Payne, Ed. (2013, September 12). Syria civil war: 5 things to pay attention to today. CNN.com. Retrieved September 12, 2013 from http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/12/world/meast/syria-civil-war-diplomacy/index.html?hpt=wo_c1.