Syria: Con

By: Lena West and

Reva Kreeger
(Syria)
Oppressive government suppressed political and
religious problems (McCaffrey)
Protests started in 2011 and government
responded with full military action
(McCaffrey)
Religious conflict: Assad is Shia and
majority of the population is Sunni
(McCaffrey)

Background
(Brasil)
Other countries come in: Hezbollah helping Assad and
Shias and other foreign Sunnis helping rebels (Atassi)
Rebels are broken into many groups (Syria crisis: Guide
to armed and political opposition)
Jihadist groups want to make Syria an Islamic state
while other rebels want to overthrow Assad (Sly)

Background
We want to oust Assad, but
We want to help rebels, but...
Dont want to help al-Qaeda affiliated
groups but many are dispersed within the rebels
(Syed)
Rebel groups are fighting within each other (Hubbard)
We would be fighting two wars at once: Assad and al-
Qaeda (Hubbard)
Dont want to make the same mistake we made in
Afghanistan (The Afghan War)


Who are we fighting?
(Syrian fighter)
Need new expensive equipment: warplanes, ships,
submarines (Vanden Brook)
Helping rebels would cost $500 million annually and keeping
chemical weapons under control would
cost $1 billion monthly (Vanden Brook)
Currently US debt is about
$17 trillion and rising
Economic Stress
(Money)
In Iraq, 4489 US soldiers were killed while 2312
soldiers were killed in Afghanistan (Griffis)
People cannot deal with another huge war. Many
regret going to Iraq. In 2006, just 3 years after war in
Iraq started 60% of people were already against it
(Poll: 60 percent of Americans oppose Iraq war)
Emotional Stress
Assads military is in cities so air attack could kill more
civilians (Pape)
Land attack would face stiff resistance (Pape)
If Assad falls, al-Qaeda could potentially run Syria,
which would ultimately cause the U.S. to go into
another war in the Middle East (Wickham)

Bloody War
Aid to rebels could end up in the hands of terrorists,
threatening our national
security (Wickham)
Russia supports Assad so a
war against Syria will add
tension between the US and
Russia (Calamur)

Bloody War
(Klimentyev)
Syrian civilians rebelled against Assad-- rebel groups
are split into groups that want to overthrow
government and groups that want Islamist state
By helping overthrow Assad,
we may be helping the
extremist and jihadist
rebels.

Summary
(Syrian Rebel with Flag)
America cannot afford another war after the costs of
Iraq and Afghanistan
Would have to face terrorist groups as well as Assad
Facing Assad and his allies would be very violent and
would increase tension with his allies
We cannot go to war in Syria in order to protect the
rebels and get rid of Assads regime

Summary
"The Afghan War." Cold War.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.coldwar.org/articles/70s/afghan_war.asp>.
Atassi, Basma. "Lebanese Sunnis fighting 'holy war' in Syria." Al Jazeera. N.p.,
14 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/lebanese-sunnis-fighting-hol
y-war-syria-201421394828913798.html>.
Brasil, Agencia. "Bashar al-Assad." Nations Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar.
2014. <http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Syria-history.htm>.

Works Cited
Calamur, Krishnadev. "Who Are Syria's Friends And Why Are They Supporting Assad?"
NPR. N.p., 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/08/28/216385513/who-are-syrias-friends-and-
why-are-they-supporting-assad>.
Griffis, Margaret, ed. "Casualties in Iraq." AntiWar.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
<http://antiwar.com/casualties/>.
Hubbard, Ben. "Al Qaeda Breaks with Jihadist Group in Syria Involved in Rebel...." New
York Times. 04 Feb. 2014: A.9. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Mar.
2014.

Klimentyev, Mikhail. Assad and Putin shaking hands. NPR. N.p., 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 11
Mar. 2014.
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/08/28/216385513/who-are-syrias-friends-and-w
hy-are-they-supporting-assad>.
McCaffrey, Paul. "Deep Divisions: Syrian Society And Politics." Points Of View:
Reference Shelf- Arab Spring (2013): 4. Points of View
Reference Center. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Money. Collapse.com. N.p., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
<http://collapse.com/jean-paul/2013/09/26/id270.htm>.

Pape, Robert A. "Why We Shouldnt Attack Syria (Yet)." The New York Times.
N.p., 2 Feb. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/why-we-shouldnt-attack-syria-yet.html?_r=
1&>.
"Poll: 60 percent of Americans oppose Iraq war." CNN. N.p., 9 Aug. 2006. Web. 10 Mar.
2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/09/iraq.poll/>.
Sly, Liz. "Foreign Extremists' Footprint in Syria Growing." Washington Post. 02 Oct.
2013: A.16. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Syed, Aijaz Zaka. "Syria, Iran and Arabs." Global Issues in Context.
N.p., 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/>.
"Syria." Map. SVA Close Up. N.p., 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
<http://blog.sva.edu/2013/02/sva-hosts-understanding-the-syria-conflict-through-data-visual
ization/>.
"Syria crisis: Guide to armed and political opposition." BBC News. N.p., 17 Oct. 2013.
Web. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-15798218>.
Syrian fighter. New Eastern Outlook. N.p., 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
<http://journal-neo.org/2014/01/13/rus-prekratitsya-li-krovoprolitie-v-sirii/>.


Syrian Rebel with Flag. Advocacy.net. N.p., 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.umaa-advocacy.net/content/look-syria-developments-around-world-0>.
Vanden Brook, Tom. "War costs could escalate quickly." USA Today. N.p., 31 Aug. 2013.
Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/30/pentagon-war-costs-syria/274898
5/>.
Wickham, DeWayne. "Wickham: Why Obama should not attack Syria." USA Today. N.p.,
2 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/02/dewayne-wickham-on-obama-and-syri
a/2754355/>.