The situation in Syria has changed a lot since the discussion. At this point in time the UN seems to be finalizing a plan to end the chaos. Earlier this week was a different story. The UN was in a stalemate and had no plan. Throughout the Socratic seminar I noticed that most participants had a strong grasp on the concept.They made several good points by citing their sources and using quotes. The participants in the meeting were split between people who supported foreign intervention and those who did not. The people who did not support it felt that it was important not to interfere because of the rising tensions between the US and other countries (Iran, Russia, etc.) and that the US won't help the situation by adding bullets or bombs. Although I disagree with their decision I see there point. Both sides made some good points to defend their cases. Although they did give a lot of good information I feel they didn't touch on some subjects as much as others. For example I feel like they did not talk a lot about the origin of the problem in Syria. If they spent a little more time on that everyone would have been on the same page.
They discussed many options in their meeting. An idea they had was to simply follow Obama's plan of using military force. Then they realized it was be more harmful than helpful. Forcing peace would stop the use of tanks and missiles, but it wouldn't settle any problems between the two parties. A peace treaty was impossible because both would refuse to make peace after what the others had done. Sending guns to the rebels would just cause more bloodshed. Taking away the Assad regimes chemical weapons wasn't a bad idea, but there was still going to be a lot of bloodshed between the two parties. The majority of the group was leaning towards foreign intervention seeing as it would be the most logical choice.
In my opinion I think the meeting went rather well. There weren't any lulls that I noticed and the conversation had a great flow to it. I feel the meeting was most productive when new info surfaced and people got to add their opinions to it. The least productive part of the meeting was when information was repeated. It caused a slight pause that stopped the flow of the conversation
In my opinion I agree that with the idea of crippling crippling? Assad by taking away his weapons. This way Obama would not look weak when he said chemical weapons were the "red line" and we would not anger Russia, Iran or China by attacking their ally. All three countries agreed making Assad hand over the weapons was the best choice. The least viable would be to try to use military force while Russia and China are against it because it isn't worth fighting with them over something like this. That could lead to a much larger war that would do harm the US and its allies.
All in all the best choice was the one the UN made.
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