I know that we’ve all seen the disturbing images of refugees washing ashore on Greece, desperate to put back together any semblance of the life they once had in Syria. As people I obliged that we have a deep responsibility to help and contribute to the crisis especially since we are the ones that helped bring it to be. Whether or not you pay attention to what’s happening in the world, recently the Syrian Government with Russian and Iranian help has launched an offensive that coincided with the Geneva Talks to help end the war that has already taken so many lives. Many people in the “moderate opposition” only went in the first place after numerous threats of complete withdrawal of aid from Secretary Kerry and after Russian bombing at the invitation of the Syrian Government. The “Opposition” had many preconditions including the halt to all bombardments by Russia, the Syrian government, and Iranian allied militia, release of detainees, and unhindered access of aid to areas under their control in accordance to the UN Resolution that was passed last month. Since then Russian, the Syrian Government and Iran had launched an offensive that crippled their supply lines and forced them to withdraw from the negotiating table and they swore to never come back until the fighting ceased. This is incredibly unfortunate for the many people already dying and starving and places like Madaya, and soon-to-be Aleppo and instead of being even more resolute to come to the negotiating table all they do is ask for more anti-aircraft weapons, and ask why the U.S. thinks they will fall into the hands of jihadists. It’s because the actions of the “moderate opposition” has been one that jihadists would more likely be able to take. I know that many people are not interested in what is going on over there and I can’t say I blame them, but please at least acknowledge the facts, it is important to be aware of what is going on around you. Not that the refugee crisis is unimportant, because it is, but it would not be smart long-term to make decisions solely based on that. It would also be important to keep in mind that it was the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Turkey that began this war in the first place. Syria wasn’t the perfect place but it did have many upsides like a self-dependent economy, and a sectarian government though in 2011 people became angry with the Government, it wasn’t until Hilary Clinton, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey all decided to send weapons to the opposition that this became a war that we started. I will say again, yes we indirectly and unintentionally started this war. I will tell you how, we started a secret CIA weapons program that very few in the public know about and even fewer care enough about to actually ask about the specifics about, that sent weapons, at first, to people that purely and genuinely wanted a democratic transition in Syria and as time went on it simply became a free for all of weapons, and cash. Eventually most of these weapons ended up in the hands of jihadists, no they might not be ISIS, but they are the next ones to be. Unfortunately many people do not know this and even fewer will care, and you might ask what does this have to do with us, the answer is simple, we started it at the insistence and help of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The deal began as a way to prevent people from being slaughtered en masse by Assad but then it grew into a war with Saudi Arabia expecting us to identify groups to send weapons to, while they finance it, and Turkey delivers the supplies.

As the war went on, it began to turn into a free-for-all of revolutionaries, terrorists, and innocent people who simply want to return to their home and but the sheer influence of money and weapons into the fray turned into a country overran by terrorists being portrayed as “moderate”. One thing that the Syrian Government and Russia claims is that the “moderate opposition” has been overran by Islamic Extremists, and for the most part that is true. As the war went on, many people increasingly began to depend on these kinds of people for help, and saw them as saviors especially in a world where all you know is bombings and death it is acceptable, things that we, in the U.S., have grown accustomed to and find outrageous like that are increasingly becoming a reality in Syria, unfortunately. Anyway, as the war progressed the “moderate opposition” became forced to fight alongside and work with Islamic Extremists, and currently still are, out of necessity to survive and live and became, as Russia and the Syrian Government have put it “full of terrorists” and in a sense that is true. It is unfortunate to see the U.S. screw up a country so bad and almost never be held accountable for our actions, let’s not even talk about Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. The main reason all this started was so that Saudi Arabia and Turkey can replace their current Government and replace it with one that is more friendly to them, and we allowed it to happen all of the sake of helping our allies and all because a person like Hilary Clinton condoned and allowed it. Now while we get to debate and watch Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton spar at the debate, many Syrians will have to wonder whether or not they will be able to eat tomorrow. There are many reasons why I am not a big fan of Hilary Clinton and one of them is that she allowed a seriously idiotic plan to unfold in front of her and repeatedly advocated it, and even tried to contribute to it. Not only is she an establishment politician but she is also just incredibly dumb for a former Senator and Secretary of State. I also must put a little of the blame of President Barack Obama for pursuing and idiotic plan that offers no long term benefits to us or the Syrians at all, and certain Republican Candidates have the nerve to try and prevent Syrian refugees from entering the country, even after we messed up and destroyed their country, but of course every few people will pay attention and very few will care to do something about it. Then we have the nerve to blame Russia for entering the Syrian fray at the invitation of the Syrian President and trying to start a new Cold War for fun.

As much as I do think many of the issues being brought up in the Presidential debate serious ones, but barely does anybody ever ask what we do outside the country, including how we interact with them and how we affect them or how we affected them in the past. It is incredibly unfortunate that we can mess up the lives of others and still run for President, it’s as if life is a sick joke and other innocent people will never have that opportunity, but yet all of that is the Syrian President’s fault for trying to rid his country of terrorists and paid revolutionaries that make up the “moderate opposition”, the worst part of all of it is that the people actually responsible, will never face justice, we will just keep trying to blame Assad, keep in mind we went to war with an entire nation for supposedly having chemical weapons which later turned out to be false and we tried so many ways to diplomatically isolate Iran for disagreeing with is on important issues. All the while innocent people starve the “moderate opposition” is more focused on gaining money and weapons then finding a solution. Then there is the question that Assad is a maniac and a butcher as I have said before we went into Iraq because they supposedly had chemical weapons, which turned out to be false, and caused a million casualties and yet we never paid for the destruction that we caused. If you want my honest opinion, we never had the right to go ahead and provide weapons, even if it would’ve helped them because as we see now it has only prolonged the conflict and made everything worse. Our first weapon should’ve been education and diplomacy. One of the reasons we didn’t send troops yet because the Government knows that of we did then people would pay attention to what we are actually doing, but since we don’t have troops it is only in the backdrop of everybody’s mind. If everybody knew what we were doing, the same type of outrage we saw in Iraq would be the same we see in Syria, but of course when Seymour Hersh tried to expose the arguments the military had with the CIA over the program, nobody said a thing. To whomever is reading please inform yourselves about what is going on and happening because while we can be ignorant many people in the world can’t afford to be because of us. I must also say that Obama had many chances to change the current situation in Iraq but it wasn’t until Putin intervened that he is beginning to acknowledge that turning the “moderate opposition” into an army wasn’t the wisest and smartest idea in the world and it never will turn out to be. We tried that in Libya and Afghanistan and both of those places are a mess, but the media will never allow that secret to be uncovered or many people probably wouldn’t care anyway, either or. In my opinion, the safest and closest way to a ceasefire, would be just to allow Assad to have his way and focus our efforts on finding a peaceful solution to the conflict and with China and Russia by our side this time, maybe we can. Lastly, never again should we let the imperial ambitions of our allies weigh more than doing the right thing in accordance with international law.