With bombs being dropped without a hesitation, what is the United States headed for in the Middle East? As most of you may know, on April 7, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on a Syrian Airbase by the name of Shayrat, owned by the Syrian government. This attack was carried out in response to the use of chemical weapons by Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, upon his own people.

Though the President’s actions were made to help the people of Syria as well as secure the world from terrorism altogether, the public and the media had some mixed emotions about the attack. Adding to the tensions in the public sphere is the election of 2016. This crazy election, filled with words of hate and personal attacks, has caused the American public to split due to the president’s strong ideals. As his actions were somewhat controversial, those who opposed him have come down with an iron fist, and so the question is asked: was it justified to drop bombs on Syria?

I went out into the Kadet community and beyond to see just how our fellow students felt about the bombing, and much like the American public, the answers I received were very different. When junior Aaron Ortiz was asked, he responded with, “I think that the problems in the Middle East are really messed up right now, and America should be trying to stay away from these messes as much as possible, so no, I don’t think the bombing was the right thing to do.” Aaron then told me that he normally tends to lean towards more conservative ideals, which creates an interesting juxtaposition within his ideals that shows just how unclear the situation is.

For senior Matt Parker, the answer was a little different. When I asked Matt what he thought about the entire ideal, he said, “Yeah, I think it was justified. The Syrian leader was using chemical weapons on his own people, and someone had to stop him.” Though this outlook may seem a bit harsh, it does hold truth.

Having never really heard the political ideas of my 14 year old sister, I thought it would be interesting to see her thoughts on the controversial subject. She responded with, “I don’t really know a lot about the whole thing, but I think that bombing a country is never something that should happen.” I then asked her if she knew why President Trump had chosen to attack the Syrian Airbase, and she said, “Yes, he was using chemicals on his people. We could’ve still worked things out with words before bombing the country.”

The Middle East has been a hot zone since the Cold War, and tensions have been on the rise ever since actions like the attacks on the World Trade Center. While the United States does need to act in order to keep its people, as well as the citizens of the world, safe, hopefully the decisions our country makes does not lead to any radical consequences.