The chaos taking place in the Middle East country of Syria has dominated news stations, headlines, and the White House’s priority list for the last couple of months. But as the nation’s leaders sit behind closed doors to discuss the issue, who’s answering the real questions America is asking: the how exactly did this mess happen?

According to the Miami Herald, while Syria has a very rich history, it has only been a country since the 1920s. Though only about the size of South Carolina, it holds more than five times the amount of people: 22 million. While this population is very diverse, most people are ethnic Arabs and practice Islam.  Despite the peaceful teaching of Islam, this region is full of unrest. “The conflict Syria in right now is not surprising given the state of the surrounding areas, it was pretty much inevitable” says history teacher Mr. Jurasas.

Trouble started in Syria in April 2011, shortly after protests in Egypt began to challenge dictatorships. People started peaceful protests and the government responded quickly and brutally.  Protesters were killed and their family members kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed, even children. Then the Syrian military began opening fire on protesting crowds. After this went on for a while, the rebels started fighting back.

Rebels organized into groups and started attacking the government, raising the fighting level to a full scale civil war.  The military began bombing towns and neighborhoods as a terror technique and the rebels army grew as volunteers from other countries joined the force. These volunteers joined to fight for democracy or because they are jihadists who hate the secular government.

While the bloody Civil War is very newsworthy, BBC News states that what brought Syria to the spotlight recently was their use of chemical weapons. On August 21, the town Muadhamiya, near Damascus, was hit with supposedly seven missiles containing deadly chemical weapons.  Within hours people started showing signs of sickness and distress with no physical injuries. Some of the most graphic news footage covering the event includes rows and rows of dead children, many still in infancy.  It is estimated around 1,300 people were killed in the attacks, though due to the chaos and lack of hospitals the exact number is hard to calculate.

These attacks are considered horrible acts of violence. However, so are all the other senseless killings that took place in Syria in the previous two years that didn’t involve chemical weapons. Why is this one so different? Using chemical weapons was outlawed by the Geneva Convention following World War II, a pact that is applied to all nations in peace or war time.   One of the last people to use chemical weapons on his own country was Saddam Hussein. This outright violation of world code prompted the United Nations to investigate the area, making sure chemical weapons were used.  Of course, there was plenty of evidence of nerve agent in the town of attack.

As reported in the Global Post, once there was solid evidence of the attacks the United States really jumped into action. Obama declared Syria had “crossed a red line” and threatened missile attacks if there wasn’t removal of the chemical weapons.  This “counter attack” would have to be done outside of the United Nations, as Russia, a military supplier of Syria, would withhold the necessary vote for a UN lead strike.  Other nations, such as Britain, voted against action in another country’s civil war.  As of the date of this article the United States and Russia are negotiating a deal with Syria to withdraw its chemical weapons.  However had Russia not brought up this deal, Mr. Jurasas believes “The United States seemed fully prepared to take a limited action against Syria.”

How does a student in Nazareth Academy help this mess so volatile it is changing almost every hour? Stay informed by keeping up with the most up to date information. “On a scale of one to ten, I’m about a five” says Senior Kiley Roache when asked about her knowledge on Syria. “I am not informed” follows up fellow Senior Molly Reckinger “but I wish I was.”

Syria is a complex and constantly changing issue in the world. It is rather hard for American teenagers, people used to freedoms, rights, and tolerance, to wrap their heads around. However, try to stay as involved as possible on this overseas crisis. Someday this generation will be responsible for solving similar problems.