Syria has been embroiled in, and Syrians have been in the midst of, a civil war since 2011. That's nearly eight years of violence, dissonance, and brutality. Hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered by their own government. When the entity that is supposed to protect you attacks and betrays you, what is there to trust?
Syrians. Deserve. Better.
The war started in 2011, after a series of pro-democracy protests and a few teenagers who painted slogans of revolution upon school walls. Little did the world know then that this was the beginning of such atrocity.
This war is not merely a conflict and clashing of ideas. It is not merely about dissent regarding how to run the government or country. It is vile. It is vicious, as I suppose all wars often are.
People are dying. Not just in the typical sense of war and not just military personnel. This war has been permeated by rape and enforced disappearance, by the silencing of dissenting voices. Citizens have been blocked from receiving food, healthcare, and water. The government has dropped barrel-bombs on rebel-held areas, instantly killing thousands. Thousands more have been displaced and forced to seek refuge in other nations, some hostile and some welcoming.
The government has also launched chemical attacks against its own people. Chemical attacks that mutilate and destruct, far less merciful than the cold hand of death.
Syrians deserve better than to be attacked by their own government. In a war, if you attack civilians, people who aren't military personnel, that's a war crime, of which many have been ever-so pertinent in this conflict.
Will the air strikes against the nation launched by the USA, Great Britain and France serve as a deterrent to Syria's chemical attacks?
Hopefully, because Syrians have been through enough brutality.