PHOTO COURTESY | WIKIPEDIA
The Syrian Civil War has claimed the lives of roughly 500,000 people.

I have found myself very conflicted lately, most notably because I have ignored the death of around half a million people. The Syrian Civil War has recently led the United States to attack the country’s regime headed by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which is a major development.

We have ignored this war criminal, Assad, who has used chemical weapons on his own people and had his military aim machine guns on peaceful protestors in 2011.

All in an attempt to not get our hands dirty, which makes sense, considering how terrible of shape we left Afghanistan in. We have ignored this atrocity, like most cases in the Middle East, because Western citizens, like us, value white lives over brown lives.

This vast quantity of death should be something that is fresh in everyone’s mind, but it seems like people don’t get it. We should all know the timeline of this war since it is one of the biggest conflicts in the world right now. We should know why our attack on Assad is a big deal.

Recently though, a picture has been making the rounds on the internet, which proved to me this education isn’t happening enough. When asked, “Do you support the missile attack on Syria?” Amber Zirkelback Wooster responded with,

“I’m just thankful that Syria didn’t bomb us for poisoning the children of Flint or gassing natives at Standing Rock.”

You can’t compare these things. It is like comparing the Holocaust to the events in Charlottesville. Both are atrocious, but not in the same category. To quote Jules from “Pulp Fiction”,

“Not even the same sport.”

And look, I hate war. I find it pointless most of the time, costly in both capital and our troops. Our troops most of the time come home depressed and ravaged by other mental ailments; see the war in Afghanistan again.

In this case though, what are we supposed to do? Roughly half a million people have died, some 100,000 innocent citizens included. Since this engagement is happening in one of the most unstable areas of the world, these deaths don’t seem to be valued as much, blatantly obvious by this statement by Wooster.

One hundred thousand people dying is about the size of Fargo, all dead in the course of five years. If that doesn’t make you sick, I don’t what else I can say.

We have ignored this issue as a population. The lives of innocent children and civilians are being lost by the day.

So, no, I don’t know what we should have done. Perhaps open our borders more? Be more accepting of refugees trying to flee an unstable world? A missile attack on chemical weapon facilities, perhaps is better than nothing?

I know one thing though, comparing the death of thousands to what accumulates to nothing in comparison, is Eurocentric and disgusting to do. Please do not follow this idiot’s remark. Remember the world is much much bigger than the United States, and brown people’s lives, you know, matter.