Syria, What’s Going On?












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            * Syria, What’s Going On?
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            There have been few times in my life where I have felt a single talk, lecture, or presenta

            drastically changed my worldview. The lecture, “Syria, What’s Going On?” by Alejandro Guti
            effect on me, and I believe many other students in attendance. In a two-hour lecture at th
            on Wednesday, November 18th Gutierrez spoke of his experience as a researcher of war crime

            shared photos and stories of the atrocities he’s witnessed.
            Prior to the lecture, I was your average, liberal minded, outspoken but uninformed student
            situation in Syria. I knew there was a war, and that the situation had been going on long 

            bad enough that people needed out. I didn’t, however, have any idea of the complexity and 
            war.

            Gutierrez began by explaining how the war began. In 2010 a group of university students in
            seen on TV people protesting and making graffiti in other parts of the world. Frustrated w
            regime they decided to graffiti, “We want to bring down the Syrian regime” in a public squ

            government did not take this action lightly; rather than punishing the students with a fin
            the case in most Western nations, the students were arrested, tortured, and murdered, and 
            brought back to the town square and put on display.

            The Syrian public reacted to this by beginning to protest across the nation. This was the 
            Syrian government had experienced protesters and felt they needed to make the punishment d
            them. To do this they reacted by freeing Islamic extremist fighters that had been in priso

            brutality and unpredictability. It was after this that civil war was inevitable.
            According to Gutierrez there are currently 50 rebel militias fighting against one another 
            is part of what makes the war so complex and difficult to end. There isn’t one side fighti

            eventually one will win. It’s everyone fighting everyone, there is no end in sight, and pe
            To make matters worse there are numerous nations (Iran, Russia, Turkey, and the US to name
            financial interests in Syria, so they are providing funding to different rebel groups. The

            different interests, and are driven by different religious reasons. The funding isn’t help
            continuing to fuel the conflict.
            Much of the second half of the presentation was Gutierrez showing photos of the atrocities

            Bombed buildings, hospitals, and children playing with bombs they found. It was during thi
            the talk that the magnitude of the conflict really set in for me. He showed pictures of wo
            in cages on top of trucks. They were used as “human shields” when the trucks drove through

            wanted to shoot or bomb the drivers, you’d likely kill these innocent people as well. Phot
            right after the infant ward of a hospital was bombed were displayed. Bombers were likely t
            infant ward, intentionally killing the babies inside.

            After sitting through that presentation I think few people would argue against giving Syri
            safe place to live. Yes, there needs to be security and the distribution of refugees needs
            way that considers the economic effects, but people have a right to live in peace. No one 

            from the conflict, and there is no end in sight. Gutierrez was effective in delivering his
            humans, we have a responsibly to these people. I hope Gutierrez is able to reach other aud
            as his story is one that needs to be heard.
                                                                                                      
            Makenzie Muilenburg is an exchange student from Seattle, Washington in the United States s
            Faculty of Arts for winter semester. She is in her last year at her home university, the U
            psychology and business. In her free time she enjoys playing soccer, spending time with he
                                                                                                      
            excited to be a part of iForum, and is especially looking forward to working with other fo
            happenings of Charles University.