By: Benjamin Linares

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Knowing what is right doesn’t mean much unless you do what is right.” I was taught that no matter what the outcome, Americans stand up for what is right. Not what looks better in the papers or on CNN, but what is fundamentally the right thing to do. I am sad to say that we failed to stand up for what was right in Syria. 1,429. That’s how many people were killed because of the gruesome and horrendous acts of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. As Americans, we should have stood up for all of them. Hundreds were innocent children who will never experience any sort of happiness or freedom. I don’t claim to be a military expert and I certainly agree with the fact that no American boots should be put on the ground in Syria, but I know that as a country, we should have helped.

I believe that we should have struck the Syrian regime. We should have struck with such a force that every room in Bashar al-Assad’s presidential palace crumbled to the ground. Not because it would make us seem powerful or heroic but because it was the right thing to do. America is the world’s only pre-eminent power. What would it mean if we just stood by and allowed hundreds, thousands of innocent people to die from outlawed chemical warfare? In my opinion, it doesn’t make us any better than the dictators who commit these crimes.

I applaud President Obama, Secretary Kerry and the international community for coming together and figuring out a potential way around this problem without force. I am the first to agree that if diplomacy can be reached before violence, than that is the right position to take. So, the next question is, what do we do now? I believe we have to implement a plan in which the Syrian regime turns over its chemical weapons stockpile to the international community. All countries should be stripped of every single chemical weapon in their arsenals. But is that enough? Assad gets away with murder? If you ask me, the crime does not fit the consequence. There should still be grave repercussions for these heinous crimes.

Those who are elected to congress should devise a plan to give control of Syria back to its people and to do so without the cost of any American lives. This is no easy task, I am aware of that. I also admit that I don’t know how to do it, but I am certain however, that we cannot stand idly by and let these atrocities happen. This op-ed is not a call to arms or by any means meant to encourage war. It’s a call to common sense, a call to heart, and a call to hope.

A couple of years ago, I learned what’s known as the serenity prayer.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Some things cannot be changed, but others can be. I hope that the next time my country has the power to do so, we will come together and not only have the wisdom, but the courage needed to do the right thing.