From the ashes of the Holocaust a single tearstained commitment rose; the call of “Never Again”. It echoed in the snowy streets of Moscow and through the marble halls of Washington. As Europe rebuilt from ruins and China forged itself anew, the world worked to instill a foundational resolve that Never Again would innocent corpses stain lands scarlet with blood. Never Again would the systematic massacre of civilians be tolerated by civilized nations. Yet as the scars of Hitler healed, it seems the world forgot that the lessons learned through atrocity.  As early as 1975 “Never Again” became “only once more”, first in the island of Timor, then in Cambodia, Guatemala, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Theses specters of failure are now joined by the bloody ghost of a Syria too long ignored. Never Again has been sworn five times over, it is time that promise is upheld.

Since 2011 the nation of Syria has been locked in a civil war that was caused by the nation’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad‘s, response to peaceful civilian protest requesting reform. These protests were originally part of the Arab Spring; however, Assad’s war has grown to be a separate historic event. Assad pushed the protests into riots, the riots into battles, the battles into a war. By late 2011 the Arab Spring had become a Syrian Civil War. Since the war began crimes against humanity have proliferated across the nation, mostly carried out by the Assad regime.

Throughout this war, Assad has denied the foundational rights of speech, assembly, protest, and press.

Assad has allowed the development of a terrorist organization that now threatens the security of nations on the European, North American, Asian, and African continents.

Assad has repeatedly violated ceasefire and safe zone agreements negotiated by the United Nations and other third parties.

Assad has refused to even consider relinquishing his power in order to further the peace process, despite his resignation being a foundational request of the Free Syrian Army and other opposition parties

Assad has engaged in the massacre of Syrian civilians through the bombing of population centers, the indiscriminate use of personal firearms and the other means of conventional warfare.

Assad has used starvation and siege tactics and as weapons against civilian populations in the hope of bringing about their submission to his dictatorial rule.

Assad has systematically and repeatedly employed chemical weapons of mass destruction against both military targets and civilian populations.

Assad has since 2011 been operating the Saydnaya prison as a concentration camp with the express purpose of carrying out the systematic and extrajudicial executions of civilians critical of his regime.

Assad has since 2011 ordered the death of between 5,000 and 13,000 of his civilians critical of his regime by way of hanging at his Saydnaya concentration camp.

Assad has subjected the civilian prisoners held at his Saydnaya concentration camp to abhorrent and hellish tortures with the explicit intent of stripping their basic human dignity.

Assad has allowed the guards of his Saydnaya concentration camp to rape prisoners and force prisoners to rape other prisoners.

Assad has performed these acts without serious consequence, and in fact, Assad has performed these acts while being sponsored by the Russian Federation.

The world’s response to Assad’s atrocities has been wholly inadequate. Diplomacy and regional solutions have failed. Western sanctions have worsened conditions for civilians but left the dictator untouched by discomfort. The Arab League has failed to render meaningful aid to the cause of Syrian freedom and liberty. Syria’s neighbors of Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel have turned inward and ignored their neighbor’s plight. The alliance of NATO has refused compassion. The nation of Russia has allied itself with the dictatorial monster that is consuming his nation. Worst of all the United Nations is paralyzed by the ambitions of two failed empires, the former Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. The international community has been unwilling to act. The regional powers have been filled with apathy. The other superpowers of the world have been sympathetic to the oppressors. Seeing that our preferred organs of change have been ineffective, there is no remaining course of action other than American action. Syria requires unilateral, United States intervention.

Yet it seems few know, and fewer care. There has been no comment from congress, no briefing from the White House no statement from our UN ambassador. Saydnaya isn't even trending on twitter.

 However, the United States must, by either immediate military or diplomatic action put pressure on the Assad regime to end this abhorent abuse of human rights.

The United States must undertake these actions due to: our own moral requirement that all nations work to prevent massacre and genocide, our own respect for human dignity and republican ideals, our own need to establish peace and foster alliances in the Middle East, our own commitment to combating Russian aggression and empire building, and our own hope of maintaining moral authority in the world.