By Amanda Tennant, staff write
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In 2015, Syria had reached a new level of global instability. The country, which has been involved in a Civil War since 2011, has territory seized by many terrorist groups, including ISIS.
Due to the unrest in Syria, politicians have debated whether or not U.S. military intervention is necessary. In the midst of the debate, Indian Trail High School and Academy seniors Thomas Perkins, Michael Larson, and Paul Weaver discuss how U.S. troop deployment in Syria would impact the United States.
“Obviously it will affect our budget and put the lives of those soldiers in danger,” said Larson.
“It would also reaffirm our role as the ‘world police’, which is something we can’t afford being. I believe it will also be met with resistance from the population.”
While Perkins does believe that a portion of the American population would be opposed to boots on the ground, he also asserts that another portion would be supportive of the military action and, as a result, cause a divide in American society.
“It’s going to create an environment where people who are committed to military action will be enthusiastic. People who are not committed to military action will not be enthusiastic,” Perkins said.
“It is going to create a rift where people are going to see a side of the kind of gung-ho, militaristic nature of Americans come out in some areas and then in others, we are going to see the racist side of Americans coming out because people are going to be committed to destroying the enemy, which is ISIS.”
However, Weaver disagrees with both Larson and Perkins, and believes that it would be good if America sent ground troops into Syria.
“I think that we will get a lot of positive reactions not just from the U.S., but from other countries as well, because you can tell that other countries are pushing the U.S. to make that decision,” Weaver said.
“Plus, if you have troops on the ground, you are probably going to get a lot less civilian casualties instead of just simply bombing [Syria] and accidentally hitting a hospital that could be helping innocent people. If you have troops on the ground you can also gain a different perspective of things and also supply aid and you have a more direct fight towards ISIS than flying drones in there.”
However, Weaver also agrees with both Larson and Perkins that a lack of military intervention will not hurt the United States in the future.
“No matter if we send troops over there or not, we will still have terrorist attacks. We will just have to take other measures to crush the plans [of terrorists],” said Larson.
“I don’t think isolationism, in this case, in the long run, is going to hurt us,” said Perkins.
“It won’t hurt us, but I just think as a superpower it should be a responsibility to go and help those who are in a really bad spot,” said Weaver.
Another source of discord in American politics is the issue of Syrian refugees, Syrian people fleeing the conflict and seeking asylum in other countries.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, about 4.4 million Syrians have registered as refugees.
However, despite the large number of refugees, the United States is only committed to accepting 10,000 refugees in 2016, according to The New York Times.
Larson says the United States should let in Syrian refugees, but background checks should be stressed, especially for people from countries where terrorism is high. Perkins agrees that the United States should accept more Syrian refugees.
“What people need to understand is that majority of refugees are people fleeing conflict and they are fleeing death. They don’t want to be outside of their homes. Most of them love their country,” Perkins said.
“But after seeing their friends shot and killed in the street [and] after seeing homes destroyed by barrel bombs, they know that they cannot live there. [The Syrian refugees] want to work. They want to fight. They want to make themselves better. We need to give them a chance.”
Weaver disagrees. Accepting the Syrian refugees should be handled with more caution, he said.
“It would be the right thing to do, but from what I am hearing from other countries a lot of crime has increased [in countries where many refugees were accepted]. The crime in the United States is already really bad. I think we shouldn’t let other people in until we know what to do with them,” Weaver said.
Overall, Weaver believes that Americans should perceive the conflict earnestly.
“I think people should take this seriously, not as a joke. I mean, you can’t go in thinking ‘we are Americans, we are definitely going to win this one,’ because we have been proven wrong by that,” he said. “I mean, look at Vietnam, we had to pull out of that. We had to pull out of Iraq. I don’t think it would look good if we had to pull out of something again.”
“I think we should just go in this hard and just stay there until we get the job done,” Weaver said.
Nevertheless, both Larson and Perkins agree that despite the conflict, Americans need to keep a calm mindset and continue on with their lives.
“We just need to live our lives normal[ly],” said Larson. “We need to be more vigilant, but try and live as normal as possible.”