U.S. Intervention in Syria Could Lead to An Increase in ISIS

Cam Hainey

Professor Shirk

International Politics

October 12^th, 2017

U.S. Intervention in Syria Could Lead to An Increase in ISIS

            From the readings and discussion from the U.S. intervention in Syria I agreed with Larison and Jose arguments and beliefs the most. We should be protecting the citizens them not only being killed by the chemical weapons being used by Assad but also the regular weapons that they are used to kill them as well. I agree with Larison with his idea that intervening in Syria has no interest for the United State therefore there is no real reason why the U.S. should intervene in Syria. I also think that we shouldn’t intervene in Syria because interventions usually don’t work out well for both countries involved, and having ISIS so close to this situation any failure could result in the ability for ISIS to take advantage and further grow as a more serious threat to the U.S.

If the U.S. intervenes in Syria for a Regime change like Stacey proposes I believe that not only would chaos like Heller say but also ISIS could benefit greatly from it. The U.S. hasn’t fully committed to an intervention in Syria but has been intervening, and supporting rebel groups by supplying with things they would need to fight Assad. If the U.S. decides to keep Assad in power and remove the chemical weapons he possess to protect the citizens and the U.S. Then they will need to tell the groups that they support that they need to end the fighting and accept that Assad is in power and the leader of the country. When they do that, there will be obvious push back from those groups who fought against Assad. They will not only hate Assad and the government but they will also hate the U.S., this hate that these few people/groups have, could open up opportunities for ISIS to recruit these people who already have a hate for America. I believe that by already supporting these groups we have created a connection, and if we tell them that they need to back off, there will be some who will then resent the U.S. and could be possible recruits that ISIS would go after. In my terrorism class last semester we discussed how actions that the U.S. take that have controversial outcomes, are used by ISIS and other terrorist groups as recruiting tools and ways to show that the U.S. is wrong and the enemy. Therefore I think that keeping a regime in place could be a possible breading grown and the perfect circumstances for ISIS to come into Syria and recruit.

I also believe that intervening and taking Assad out of power and bring in a new regime can possibly lead to ISIS becoming a larger threat for the U.S. This is because Heller says that when regime change occurs, chaos can break out. In Syria if chaos was to break out from the U.S. bringing a new regime then ISIS could sweep in and take advantage of the chaos, take control of the country and/or be able to recruit more people because of the chaos there. We have seen something similar in Iraq where there isn’t a stable strong government and terrorist groups have been able to gain power, numbers in recruits and land.

Overall I think that the best thing we can do in this situation for the benefit of the United States is to not intervene in Syria in any way that could possibly lead to any sort of regime change or support any groups that are against the current regime. The only intervention that should be done should be to protect the citizens from being killed by the government.