“Big Brother” U.S. by Anonymous

            The United States has always been seen as an advocate for democracy. Since our revolution it makes sense, considering our government has worked for us for so many years. A lot of countries look up to the U.S. as a sort of “big brother” so whenever something goes wrong in the world other countries expect us to step in.

            In situations like Syria it just isn’t that easy. The U.S. just can’t step in and start forcing beliefs are people. The United States has to be careful with how we go about trying to spread our democratic beliefs. Other countries though think that it is America’s job to help some of the under-industrialized countries find their way.

            I mean what is the big deal? America has the time and power to help out other countries right? Well, not really. Shouldn’t we focus on fixing ourselves before we try and fix other countries? Right now the United States just doesn’t have the  money, but we do have the military power and the weapons.  Is it right to bomb Syria though? A lot of Americans don’t think that that’s the correct way to try and help a country. Many Americans don’t want to get involved at all, they just want Syria to handle it themselves. So just because the United States has to the weapons to attack Syria many people don’t think it’s right for the U.S. to go shove its weight around in other countries.

                The U.S. is looked upon by other countries as a strong nation that needs to back up the smaller nations that are more under-developed than we are. Sometimes a country needs to learn to solve their own problems. The U.S. can’t be jumping in whenever any country has inner turmoil. Especially when, in examples like Syria, their internal fighting has been going on for some time now, so why now would the United States want to intervene? Why wouldn’t the U.S. have stepped in earlier?

            The United States has always been looked on as a “big brother.”  The U.S. always tries to stand up for the weak and defenseless and spread democracy. Sometimes we have to think though, who is going to stand up for the United States when we need it. We need to start thinking more about our own country before we go and try to fix the world.

"What’s the Deal With Syria?" by Megan Assman

            If you have turned your TV or radio to any news station lately, there is a good chance that you have heard at least a mention of the crisis in Syria.  I have been extremely intrigued about what all the fuss is about so when my professor in my Governments of the World class said that we had a chance to do a blog assignment, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to learn more about an important historical event that is currently happening. I had heard bits and pieces of the story, but I feel that unless a topic is not thoroughly researched, an opinion cannot be formed.

As Syria marks the one-year anniversary of the country’s uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad, an estimated 7,500 people have died since the regime launched a brutal crackdown on protesters. Although Syrian activists have improved their protesting techniques of leaking photos and videos of the violence, horrible deaths, torture, and broken families to the mainstream media in the outside world, Syria’s future is still extremely uncertain.

Syria was a latecomer to the Arab Spring, a series of protests, demonstrations, and riots in the Arab world that began in December of 2010.  When Syria initially joined the Arab Spring movement the protesters did not demand that President Bashar Assad resign from his position, but instead they focused on voicing their opinion on their lack of basic freedoms that the citizens of the country were experiencing.  Security forces responded to these protests with excessively brutal force.  They shot tear gas and live ammunition into the crowd and ended up killing and severely wounding several protesters.  As anger and unrest grew due to the deaths of civilian’s, protests spread to other cities.  Assad, trying to calm the citizens, offered a series of new policies.  Officials who participated in violence would be fired, some political prisoners would be released, and the overall welfare of the citizens would be better epitomized.  The regime, however, tried to claim its innocence and blame foreign agents for the unrest in Syria.  

The violence in Syria reached a whole new level at the end of 2011.  As many as 40 people were being killed every day and the outrage continued to grow against security forces.  Loosely organized members of the Free Syrian Army staged attacks against security forces.  In December and January, two separate bombings took place in Syria’s capital, Damascus, and dozens of people were killed.  The regime blamed Al Qaeda in an effort to get public support of the regime’s crackdown and they did not stop there.  In February 2012, Assad’s regime launched an assault on the city of Homs.  Hundreds of innocent people were massacred over the course of several weeks as bombs and rockets rained down on the city.

After the events in Homs, many believed the country was destined for a civil war.  The majority of Syria’s population are Sunni Muslims, but there are also a significant number of Christian, Shia, and Alawi groups. President Assad just happens to be part of the Alawi group and Alawites “just happen” to hold many key positions in government. 

International response to the terrible events in Syria has been harsh to say the least.  President Barack Obama has called on President Assad to step down from his position and end the crisis and the chief of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, has described what happened to the citizens of Homs as “unacceptable before humanity.”  The President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, has called Assad a murderer and many other leaders across the world have said the same.  The U.N. Security Council proposed a resolution to the problem by resignation of President Assad and 13 of the Security Council’s 15 members approved, but this decision was vetoed by China and Russia. 

I am interested to see what the future holds for Syria.  Writing this blog piece has been an awesome way for me to learn more about the crisis in Syria through research and I hope that it has been an interesting read for you as well.

Sources:

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/09/05/understanding-the-crisis-in-syria/

http://www.usatoday.com/interactive/2759693/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23863012

 

CONSTUTITION, by CHANCE NKUNDIMANA

              Today the image of the earth is not the same as when it was created. Violence, earthquakes, and tsunamis destroyed people’s lives; many of them fled their country due to these circumstances.  But the main reason people flee countries is war. If we’re to question some of these people who fled their country, each person will say “war makes us flee our country” they have passion to stay in their country, but dictatorship, communism, Nazism, socialism etc… won’t let them practice their freedom. Some of their family members might be kidnaped and tortured to death because they practice their freedom. Hitler said “national socialism will use its own revolution for establishing a new world order.” Germany during Hitler’s regime didn’t establish freedom because one man has the power of ruling others. If they had a constitution that gives them the rights to practice their freedom, this structure will give them the right to establish their 
freedom. “The Constitution is certainly the most influential legal document in existence today.”

what people are seeking for

Overthrowing one man rule 

Each developed country or Western power has its own written constitution that gives rights to their citizens. The only reason they are powerful countries is because they have freedom, and it prevents government from tumbling on their rights. Other countries admire the United States constitution because of how it defends people moralities. Even though there are some changes made to the amendments; it still shields the civilian rights. 

Political systems bring confusion that can affect globalization and it will have an impact on developing countries in a bad way or good way. Look at Syria today: innocent civilians are been killed, their homes are being destroyed; they are fleeing to Turkey so they can be protected under the Turkish government. Look at Iraq today; it seems the foundation of the constitution is ruling now, instead of one man ruling. The whole population is in unity. Laws must have the root that holds them together to able to function. It is not easy to start writing a constitution while other countries have their own constitution written more than two hundred years. It won’t be simple. America has  its own constitution after gaining independence from England, they did not wait for 50 years to write one; they knew a new nation must born with its own constitution. Other countries cited the United States Supreme Court’s case, not only to compare their cases but to see how the Americans judged their citizens. For example, Canada adapted the bill of rights and they interpreted it as “a living tree.” 

The revolution of a country's constitution must face the new demands that will lead them to obtain sovereignty. In America, they accepted and faced the new challenges against Britain. Political rebellion is like a pattern that holds two ropes together; if one rope is missing the other rope won’t be able to function. That means fighting for the liberty of all, the mind sets need to be united to able to defeat dictatorship or communism government. Uprising can cause a lot of mess and blood shed; sometimes a regime can be against its own people. This ensued on Libya government.

One man rule