Solving The Syria Conflict: We Should Assassinate President Bashar al-Assad [Op-Ed]

The best way to solve the Syrian conflict would be to assassinate President Bashar al-Assad. Harsh, yes, but consider this: in the last 15 months, more than 13,000 people have died in Syria in a bloody attempt to overthrow him, and any uprising by the Free Syrian Army has resulted in the deaths of innocent women and children.

The case against al-Assad is not hard to see, displayed in headlines over the last few weeks, which include massacres in Hama province and Houla, as well as an all-out battle against the Free Syrian Army on the streets of Damascus.

Monday’s headlines only show an increase in violence, with activists reporting the Syrian army utilizing civilians as human shields in order to infiltrate rebel-held cities, according to Newser.

The U.N. denounced the Syrian army and Assad regime on Monday for allegedly using helicopter guns to shell rebel-held cities, trapping and killing many civilians, according to Yahoo News. U.N. spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh stated on Monday that

“UN observers reported heavy fighting in Rastan and Talbiseh, north of (Homs), with artillery and mortar shelling, as well as firing from helicopters, machine guns and smaller arms.”

Therefore, it’s not hard to see why people like Newser staff writer Kevin Spak think the U.S. should go ahead and assassinate President Bashar al-Assad.

Peter Beinart of The Daily Beast agrees with this line of thinking, noting that:

“Given how far we appear willing to go in prioritizing American security interests, it doesn’t seem very radical.”

Beinart also notes that the United States is no stranger to assassinations (note Osama bin Laden). He writes that:

“The United States has made it pretty clear—especially under President Obama—that we are willing to kill in order to stop regimes from butchering their own people. In tandem with our European allies, we did so in Bosnia in 1995, Kosovo in 1999, Libya in 2011, and many wish we had done so in Rwanda in 1994 as well.”

Given the fact that the Syrian government is still going to great lengths to cover up massacres, even firing upon U.S. observers who tried to access Qubair, Hama, to see how many people were dead, even the U.N. has had enough.

Kofi Annan proposed a new peace plan on June 6th, which he hopes will stem the violence in the struggling country. Given the history of violence in the country and the fact that Bashar al-Assad’s father led his own massacre against Homs province in 1982, killing more than 20,000 people, the best option for stopping the violence in Syria may be to kill President Bashar al-Assad.

Do you think this is our only option, or is there a more peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict?

Check out the video below to see an activist’s take on when the conflict in Syria will end:

[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/0WL4ar6kDjI” width=”560? height=”315?]