There is a lot of controversy about the U.S. getting involved in Syria. The biggest argument against it right now is that it’s not our problem. Now, at a glance I can see why that argument sounds appealing. But if you put more thought into it, you can see the problems.

The first point of this argument is that it’s historically been a regrettable decision not to get involved. It was the same reasoning that kept the United States out of WWII for so long. If we had taken action earlier, we might have been able to stop Hitler. We could have opened our borders more to refugees. But we took an isolationist perspective and it cost a lot of lives.

This time it’s different. We have the power to completely stop an evil man from committing evil acts. It wouldn’t require troops on the ground or putting people at risk. The time of talk is over. We need to make it clear that if you’re a dictator murdering your people (regardless of what your using; bullets or nerve gas) that we are coming for you. The age of isolationism is over. Any action by one country will eventually affect every other country.

No one has started calling the Syrian civil war a genocide yet, but it would be really nice to stop it before the history books call it one.