New York Times
April 13,2018 "How Syria's Death Toll is Lost in the War" Megan Specia This article is about how the death toll of the Syrian War has stopped being counted. The loss of the tally can result in direct impact on policy, accountability and a sense of global urgency. The last estimated death toll was given in 2016, which relied on 2014 data. It was 400,000 then. However, many of the war's biggest events have been during the last two years. This means that the death toll has risen drastically. American-led forces have bombed east Syria, these strikes are believed to have left thousands dead. Without the tally, advocates believe that the focus on ending the conflict will lessen, leading to an ongoing war. Fadel Abdul Ghany, leader of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, says that there are multiples incidents daily, which raise the death toll at an alarming rate. Monitoring death tolls are necessary to one day hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. He works with his group to create an estimated death toll everyday. He believes these figures, though not 100 percent accurate, may one day be vital. Most international experts on the conflict use over 500,000 as a figure for the death tolls. Many believe it could be higher. An estimated 217,764 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the war. Somewhere around 2.33 percent of Syria's prewar population of 22 million has been killed. The Syrian Civil War has been ongoing since 2011. In March 2011, Syria's government faced a challenge in it's authority when pro-democracy protests erupted throughout the country. The protesters demanded an end to the authoritarian practices of the Assad regime. The Syrian government used violence to try to end the protests, using extensive police, military and paramilitary forces. Opposition militias began in October of 2011, and by 2012 the conflict had turned into a civil war. Since then, thousands of civilians have been killed. My opinion on this event is that something needs to change. My biggest problem is that if this was happening in a Western country then everyone would care. If 200,000 civilians were killed in a Western country, the world would care. Everyone would rush to help, but because it is a Middle Eastern country, almost no one does. Especially in America, I am confident in saying that if you asked citizens about the Syrian war, they wouldn't know anything. I think that a lot of Americans are willing to believe everything the government says, without doing any research of their own. 200,000 innocent civilians dying is not okay. We should care. We should care about those civilians just as much as we would care if they were British civilians or American civilians. I will comment on Gracie and Jazmin's blogs.
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