Kevin Edminster

12/13/2015
English 2010
Position paper (revised)
The Russians Are Coming!
On September 30th 2015 in Homs, a city in Syria, already living under the daily fear of artillery
bombardments, a new fear came raining from the skies in the form of Russian bombs dropped from
Russian warplanes (Payne 4). As Syrias Civil war continues to rage on, Russia has decided to
intervene on behalf of Assad the ruler of Syria. Russia has intervened under the banner of fighting
against ISIL, but when Russia started their airstrikes they attacked areas of Syria that had no known
presence of ISIL. This is a worrying development because if Russian warplanes are targeting areas of
Syria that are not known as strong holds of ISIL then that means, that Vladimir Putin the President of
Russia has decided to intervene on behalf of the Assad government in an effort to prop the Assad
government up against increasingly successful Rebels. The potential for the civil war in Syria to spill
over in to the surrounding region has increased dramatically since Russia began its airstrikes because
operating in the same air space over Syria and Iraq are NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Warplanes. In recent years tensions between Russia and The United States has become greater and
since both countries are conducting airstrikes in the same area, the chance of an incident such as the
two country's jets firing upon each other is not that difficult to imagine. To complicate this already
difficult to understand situation is the fact that the two countries refuse to work together and coordinate
their airstrikes.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Bashard Assad, the president of Syria has used barbaric and cruel
weapons which have often been in violation of the Geneva Convention. Since the start of the rebellion
The Syrian Army has loaded helicopters with barrels stuffed with screws, nails, and whatever sharp
shards of metal they can find, then they fill the rest with explosives(AL Jazeer, 4). The intent of these
barrel bombs is to maim and injure in horrible ways rather than kill the victims out right. Even though
the governments of the world have extensive proof that Assad has used chemical weapons against his
own people the Russian government has repeatedly defend Assad in the United Nations and has
shielded Syria from having sanctions leveled against it. A government which is able to turn a blind eye

to the war crime that an ally is committing against its own people is not a nation that we want to use its
military forces in support of a leader who is committing these war crimes. Yet this is exactly what
Russia has done, after extensive military buildup in a base in western Syria Russia began its airstrikes
against all manner of targets which they claimed were warehouses used by ISIL to store weapons and
ammunition. In reality these targets were nothing more than civilian housing and infrastructure which
means that Russia has decided to start a terror campaign against the Syrian people similar to what
Hitler did to Great Britain during World War II, by not caring if they hit their intended target or not.
The intent of a terror campaign like this is to scare the population into not fighting by creating such
vast amounts of destruction and death in their cities by randomly dropping bombs over residential
areas(Malsin, 4). The Syrian people who have been fighting back against Assad and ISIL with limited
support from the outside world now have to deal with this threat of Russian firepower a threat meant to
break them and force them into submissively accept the rule of Assad who is a dictator and has been
butchering his own people for three years.

Russia says that they are interested in stopping ISIL especially after the revelation that ISIL had planted
the bomb on board the Russian metro flight that exploded over Egypt killing over 200 people. Yet their
airstrikes attack only enemies of Assad. If Russia seriously wanted to stop the advance of ISIL then
why do they refuse to work with the United States who is already launching airstrikes against ISIL in
both Syria and Iraq. The reasons are quite simple it is because Russia is in fact not interested in the
destruction of a radical terrorist group, but rather in rebuilding its world power statue back to the way it
was during the days of the Soviet Union, Also simply to stick it to the United States(Danner, 10). By
helping the Assad government stay in power in Syria Russia keeps its only ally in the Middle East
region and thus hold onto its last remnants of influence in the region., It is clear that something must be
done to keep Russia from pursuing this terror bombing campaign and there have been many ideas as to
how to enforce a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria right now however none of them will ever
succeed as long as Russia is still actively supporting Assad.

The easiest way to get Russia uninvolved in the conflict in the Middle East is to show them that the
risks of this becoming like the Cold War again are too high for what they might gain from continuing to
fight in this conflict. To do this The United States needs to show that we are serious in our goal to keep
Russia from continued military action in Syria, by coming up with a clear plan as to how we will
support the Rebels fighting against Assad and ISIL with airstrikes and logistical support (weapons,
ammunition, and food). Second, The United Nations needs to call upon its members to draft and
enforce economic sanctions against Russia as long as it remains actively involved in the fighting in
Syria. Russia has been struggling for many years to build a functioning economy after the collapse of
the Soviet Union, so if we are to enforce economic sanctions on Russia it becomes a choice Russia has
to make 1.Save their own economy and thus keeping them as functioning nation (BBC, 5) or 2.
Continue to fight in Syria and risk economic ruin in their own country to save a leader that wont give
them anything. When it comes to these two choices it is not hard to see which one Russia would pick.
The problem however is The United States and the rest of the western world refuses to take such firm
action against Russias intervention in Syria because they are fearful of how Russia might react. This is
a fatal error on the part of the western world because Russia would look at this lack of action as a lack
of caring much like Hitler looked at the lack of action from the Western nations after he took over
several countries as lack of caring from the rest of the world (Tolstoy, 7). This lack of action leads
Russia to believe that they can do whatever they want and that no one will stop them. To change this
The Western nations (The United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany) need to take decisive
action right away in the form of economic sanctions against Russia otherwise things will not improve
things will only worsen and more people in Syria will die.

The Civil War in Syria is far from simple, but The United States can do its best to keep the conflict
from becoming more complex and bloodier by forcing Russia to stop its active participation and
support in the Civil War. Forcing Russia to stop its role in this conflict is not only the best choice but
also the right choice, however that may not be possible and we must try and failing that we should
work our hardest to try and bring Russia into a real functioning coalition with The United States so that
together we could hopefully bring an end to the years of bloody conflict in Syria. We as nation have
always tried to pride ourselves on doing what is right even though it may not have been what was easy
and stopping Russia from continuing its campaign of terror in Syria is the right choice and even though
we have to make difficult choices in the process of stopping them we will have made the right choice in
supporting freedom and peace.

Work Citied

"At UN Panel, Speakers Call for End to Syria Barrel Bombs." UN Panel Speakers Call
to End Syria Barrel Bombs. Al Jazeera News Network, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Dec.
2015.
Danner, Chris. "The Meaning of Russia's Intervention in Syria." Daily Intelligencer.
New York, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
"How Far Do EU-US Sanctions on Russia Go? - BBC News." BBC News. British
Broadcasting Company, 15 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
Maslin, Jared. "Russia Is Killing Civilians, Not ISIS, in Syria." Time. Time, 30 Nov.
2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Tolstoy, Nikolai. "Giving in to Russian Bullying Now Is like Appeasing Hitlers

Germany." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 7 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.