Saturday, September 7, 2013

Breaking News: Syria

Breaking News: Majority of Americans Approve of Sending Congress to Syria.  Thanks to The Onion for covering this story.

It amused me so much I had to share, though there is nothing amusing about the situation in Syria.  I've been following it via NPR.  At the time of the chemical weapons attack, they talked with a doctor at a hospital in Syria, who described the thousands of patients coming in.  I was so horrified I nearly changed stations, but I don't want to be that person who turns a blind eye to the sufferings of others.

Over the next two days, I heard Kerry's and Obama's comments from NPR and tried to form an opinion on what we as the US should do.  I reached the impasse that I always do when pondering foreign policy.  On the one hand, I hate war and know the US does not have a good history of intervening in other nations' civil wars.  On the other hand, listen to descriptions of the people hit by the sarin gas.  By our common humanity, each person holds a certain responsibility for every other person on the planet.  And if we don't do anything, who will?

NPR reassured me that these feelings are normal and gendered.  More men than women support US military action in Syria -- not because women are more likely to oppose it, but because they are more likely to be undecided.

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