It's a small step in the right direction, but given the situation, I think we, along with the support of the UN, are going to have to take matters a little further.
Since a political uprising began in Syria in the spring of 2011 the UN estimates at least 9,000 innocent people have been killed. At that time sanctions began with Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime cutting social security payments and slashing fuel and food subsidies for the local people. That was then and this is now. With each passing day the situation is becoming more and more grave and now other countries are stepping in. Governments across the globe - including ours in Canada - have begun expelling Syrian ambassadors and diplomats in an attempt to turn the situation around. The collective effort began following a gruesome massacre that the United Nations reports involved close-range shootings of more than 100 children and parents in their homes. According to reports at least 49 children and 34 women were among the over 100 people killed.
They may reside in what would seem to most as a world away from Canada, but how as human beings can we just sit by overlook and let this happen? If the shoe was on the other foot and something like this was happening here, wouldn't you hope that someone would step in our defence?
"This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion of what has happened in Syria," says Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr. In a recent statement, he called the killings a "hideous and brutal crime" and said Australia would not engage with the Syrian government unless it abides by a U.N. cease-fire plan. Canada has followed suit, as has the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and possibly more countries by the time you're reading this.
While it may not be in the best interest - at least at this point - for all concerned to send in our armies, in good conscience one would think we have to do something. To sit back while thugs take the lives of women and children who are shot in the head at close range by they're own government is unacceptable, in fact as much a crime as standing back watching a murder here and doing and saying nothing. Cold blooded murderers have no place running a country anywhere on earth and it's up to us to do our part to see that they don't.
