Over the holidays I have been watching the news quite carefully as well as making my plans for studying in Sarajevo this summer to learn about Genocide, War Crime, and Transitional Justice. Once I return from my family vacation in Canada, I will be posting the rest of my final papers from this semester. I have taken quite an interest in Foreign Policy as it relates to Humanitarian Military Interventions. As I study and plan to travel to study such Humanitarian Crises, I see the Syrian City of Homs transforming into the very subject matter I am researching.
So Instead of just being passive and studying past events, I am trying to pro-actively prevent 'the Siege of Sarajevo'-like conditions from permanently scarring the Syrian people and the denizens of Homs. I sent this following letter to my Congressional Representative Tom Cole (R):
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Rep. Cole,
I am a student at the University of Oklahoma double majoring in Religious Studies and Political Science with a minor International Area Studies (IAS). My focus with the Poli-Sci and IAS are the areas of American Foreign Policy, International Relations, and Humanitarian/Military Foreign Interventions. I am also going to the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina [in Sarajevo] to do an intensive study program regarding the subject matter of Genocide, War Crime, and Transitional Justice.
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| A Friday Protest in the Syrian City of Homs [photo courtesy of CNN] |
As a citizen of the greatest nation in the world, I believe we have a duty to make sure the basic human rights are not systematically transgressed upon the citizens of other less fortunate nations, especially at the hands of their own government. This time we know, again. If we remain comatose and act complacent whilst doing so, we will become morally culpable and morally defeated. So instead of just standing by and watching, Please let me be able to tell my [future] children we actually did something this time; free of False claims of WMD's or in search of Oil, but rather for freedom and liberty, in defense of the defenseless, for we should help those who cannot help themselves.
-Nolan Kraszkiewicz
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The U.N. Estimated Death Toll is Currently at 5,000+
The U.N. Estimated Death Toll is Currently at 5,000+
Do Something!
To read up on the situation in Homs, Syria here are some resources I would suggest:
The CNN coverage of the Crisis in Homs
The CNN coverage of the Crisis in Homs
