Period 5/6 Sryian Death Tolls

The civil war occurring in Syria is not an act of genocide. A genocide is when a specific group of people, oftentimes religious peoples, are being killed or injured. In Syria's case it is against the government which is made up of many different types of people. The Syria issue is not a genocide, there is no perceivable way that it could be labelled as such. This does not mean other countries should not take action, though. There are mass killings happening, with some estimates of over 500,000 people dead, attackers and civilians alike. While there are numerous groups calculating the death tolls, and none of them match exactly, there is not much anyone can do until there is a set amount. Mentioned in the NY Times article,  ““This work, what we are doing, we are doing this mainly for our people, for our community, for history itself,” Mr. Ghany said. “So we are recording these reports in order to say, on this day, in 2018, these people have been killed and because of this, and in this area”” (NY Times). Without the who, what, when, where, and why countries do not have the necessary information to take action without facing major consequences. Not to mention that some countries just do not seem to care, the Syrians are struggling ““Because no one is listening to what we are doing”” (NY Times). The blame is on the Syrian government for everything that is occurring in Syria, which makes the who a little bit easier. Due to the fact that no death counts are accurate, there is not going to be any aid coming than what they already have. Besides some of the bombings and intervention, it has not done anything. Nothing will happen until there are foreign boots on the ground. The U.S. should focus on keeping Israel safe, because they mean so much to the U.S. and not put the troops in direct combat at this time.

My question is: how does it seem that the countries surrounding Syria are not getting that much backlash from the fighting? Or is it just being kept under wrap?

"Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000"(BBC). The Syrian war was one that started as a result of unhappy and politically unfree people.Throughout the years the Syrian War has killed thousands of people, however it is extremely hard to determine the exact amount. This "unknown" death tole came about as result of the fifth anniversary to the start of the war. As stated in the New York Times "Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) who had been releasing the numbers, told reporters that the organization could not offer a reliable figure for the death toll, and that due to doubts about the accuracy of the information they were presenting, the U.N"(New York Times). This inaccuracy of the death tole makes it extremely hard to determine as to how much this war has effected Syria. I however do not believe that this was an act of genocide. As Olivia said, for this to be a genocide,"a specific group of people, oftentimes religious peoples, would have to been killed or injured." This is in no way shape or form a genocide, and will never be labeled as one. The death tole however not being counted accurately may result in some serious consequences. With the U.N. stating that they were unable to give an accurate number, then later reversing their decision, is a little sketchy. Other countries may start to question the U.N's credibility and begin to question them on future death toles and decisions that they may make. If they just stayed with what they had said and not gone back on their word there would most likely not be any consequences to not keeping an accurate number of deaths.

For the past few years Sarah has been in a dramatic Civil War. This war does not target any specific race or religious group, but it is fixed on dismantling the government. Some people are saying that this war on the the brink of becoming a genocide. With the death toll being so high I can see that this is a devastating loss for the Syrian country. However this war is not a genocide. For it to be a genocide the deaths would have to be of a certain race of religious group. The biggest problem that is also occurring in Syria is that not all the deaths have been properly recorded. More than 40,000 people have died so far but, that is only the number of people that have been recorded. Many more people have be reported missing. No one really knows if they are dead or alive. With the loss of all these people many different cultures will be lost to the world. So many Syrians have fled the country in order to save their lives and their family but, they are leaving so much behind. Almost 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. Many of them have fled to surrounding countries and, people are losing their home, culture, and sometimes their family that have died. So many countries have need so over run that they can not with stand that large amount of people. This civil war is slowly overflowing into other countries. A whole country will be changed from this experience and it will never be the same again.

The humanitarian crisis currently happening in Syria is an extremely atrocious form of genocide. Labels as such do not need to be designated in order to see the event for what it is, the ruthless killings of many innocent men and women alike. The worst thing about this situation is the fact that there is an absence of an official death toll. There will be dire consequences for this aspect because "without a clear tally of the deaths, advocates worry that the conflict will simply grind on indefinitely, without a concerted international effort to end it" (New York Times). Many operations, for example, the UN are unable to record the exact amount of casualties and for this reason, many deaths will go unnoticed without restitution or justice on their, or their families, behalf. However, the seven year war has not gone without recognition as This statement by BBC made me wonder if the involvement of outside forces or alleviates or worsens the conditions of countries that are experiencing internal turmoil. Is it up to them to fix their own problem or should others be obligated to ease the conflict? Although, the history of Syria has been ridden with disputes "following its independence from France in 1946, Syria quickly fell into a pattern of political instability and military coups for the first few decades of its existence" (ABC News). Therefore,it is outrageously biased to state for sure what this eternal war will do to further the damage already imposed on the country's structure. The architecture of Syria has already been destroyed with almost 90% of infrastructure being damaged in some way shape or form. In response to your question about who is to blame for this disaster, the Syrian government should have taken into account that the majority of citizens were unhappy with the way things were going but instead they “responded with extreme measures including the kidnapping, torture and killing of protesters. Government troops began opening fire on civilians, who fired back in response” (ABC News). It’s not fair to say the citizens are in the wrong because it's hard to sit around while you’re being shot at by your own leaders without taking any action. Many people have been forced to leave due to the immense damage done to their homeland as the Syrian civil war has led us down a pathway to one of the largest refugee influxes in recent history.

@meghan, In response to your question, I do not believe that one group will overpower the other. President Bashar al-Assad and those under him have too much power and aggression to allow the Syrian people to reach their goals and the Syrian people are stubborn in their beliefs to give up. The Arab Spring proved to them that it is possible to overthrow such a crude government and that inspiration keeps fueling their fire. This stalemate will continue until there is a shift to provide an advantage to one side or the other. If a shift were to occur, it is best to assume that the government will find themselves at the advantage. As death tolls rise, it is likely the Syrian's faith in their cause will waver and the government will continue to weaken them.

@olivia
To answer your question as to why the surrounding countries are not getting much backlash from the fighting going on in Syria, my answer would be because they are not getting involved. These other countries are minding their own business, and Syria is trying to keep the fighting within their country. They don’t want to involve anyone else in this conflict. The neighboring countries have nothing to do with the fighting so therefore they are not getting any backlash from it.