SJS3 - "Syria in the Abyss"

Source: Weiss, Max. "Syria in the Abyss." Current History 113.767 (2014): 372-73. Print.

Author Credentials: Max Weiss completed his Ph.D. in modern Middle East history from Stanford University. He is now at Princeton as an Associate Professor of History and Near Eastern Studies. He is also the 

Summary: Over 200,000 people have lost their lives in Syria in the past three and a half years because of protests for freedom, justice, and dignity that grew into regional conflict and international proxy war. The majority of these casualties were civilians while nine million were forced from their homes, and nearly two thirds are internally displaced while the rest are refugees at bordering states. The interaction of outside countries is just making the situation worse. The Syrian media was saying that the civilians were taking up arms against the government when, in reality, they were taking up arms to defend themselves from the government. However, in Inside Syria, the actions going on are accurately illustrated as failure on both sides of the war, being that both sides lied in some way or another. This article does have many opinions but the main idea questions everything, not giving one side an upper hand. There is also the double standard of the U.S. taking military action and it being fine while it would be greatly criticized if any other country, except Israel, would do the same against Syria. 

Analysis: The author makes a strong argument on the case of the corruption within this war and the actions international countries took towards it, however there are some opinions within the piece. Most came from the work he cited, Inside Syria, concerning the double standard of war. This would not necessarily be true in all cases. There were definitely enough evidence to support it, even taking out the opinionated responses. The turn of the war when the international community was a huge support for his argument. Although he includes opinions, he makes sure that they are distinguished between them, making the article much easier to interpret. In conclusion, this professor at Princeton is a reliable source because of his background and clear understanding of the topic.