http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/06/politics/russia-syria-isis/index.html

My article is about Russia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war. The title is ¨NATO says Russian ground troops in Syria, Turkey’s airspace violated again.¨ I got the article from cnn.com. The Syrian civil war has been going on for almost 5 years between Assad’s government and the rebel forces who want him removed. About 200,000 people have died since the violence started in 2011. To make matters worse, the rise of ISIS has created a three way war between Assad, the rebels, and ISIS fighters as they take over large parts of Syria. Now, Russia’s involvement is becoming more and more serious. Russian war planes, navy ships, and even ground troops are moving into position around Syria. The biggest problem, however, arises from Russia’s alleged violation of Turkey’s airspace. Turkey is a member of NATO, an organization created to counter Soviet aggression during the Cold War. Russia claims to be establishing a military presence in Syria to fight the Islamic State, but many have suspicions that Russia is instead helping Assad’s government and attacking rebel forces. This would mean Russia is assisting a government who used chemical weapons on its citizens, arrested and tortured school children for writing anti-government graffiti, and fired on protesters. I believe that Syria’s civil war should be left to Syria. I doubt that Russia is in Syria to fight ISIS. They probably are launching some attacks on ISIS, but I think their main reason for having such a strong military presence in Syria is to help Assad defeat the rebel factions. US officials at the Pentagon believe that Russia is attacking rebels, rather than ISIS. If Russia helps Assad, then the rebels will likely lose, though it will take a while to defeat them because it is several, as many as 1000, different factions are fighting the government. And if the rebels lose, things in Syria will only get worse, as Assad will want to punish the rebels. Also, the Syrian government used chemical weapons, a violation of the Geneva Convention, and on civilians. There are some times when other nations need to step in; just as we had to step in to stop Hitler, we need to step in to stop Assad and Russia before things get even worse in Syria. If Russia and Turkey go to war, the US goes to war as well, according to the rules of NATO. The US backs the Syrian rebels and, of course, Turkey, while Russia backs Assad. If something isn’t done quickly, things could get bad.This event affects me because I will probably die if Russia starts shooting nukes at us. This event impacts the world because it could possibly grow into a much bigger conflict. The nation of Syria has been torn apart, and civilians are suffering. If Russia begins to openly attack rebels, the US will have to respond accordingly, and Russia is not known for backing down. While Russia is no longer the superpower Soviet Union, it is still a major threat to the US and its allies if a war was to start. The world will be severely impacted if this situation escalates.