Who are the FSA fighters?

As the US government debates on whether to assist Syrian rebels in their war against Bashar al-Assad, American citizens are learning more about their potential allies every day. The Free Syrian Army fighters are reportedly made up of al Nusra forces, which are al Qaeda affiliated fighters who have committed incredible acts of brutality in their effort to gain control of the state.

The war in Syria has raged for two years with over 100,000 casualties and has no clear ending. United States Secretary of State John Kerry has issued reports in the past week revealing that the government of Assad is using chemical weapons on its own people. The President of the United States Barack Obama has now reached his infamous “red line”, where he declared that the US will intervene to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. The New York Times has reported that the president has deployed a group of CIA backed rebels, who have begun to make their way onto the battlefield.

But the FSA fighters backed by the US government are not all likely to be so friendly to America if they do win. Despite enormous casualties and alleged gas attacks by Assad, rebel fighters have woven their own trail of devastation across the countryside, slaughtering innocents and murdering children in the name of Islam. Would America be more secure with a non-secular Syrian government? Senator Rand Paul doesn’t believe so. As the leading antiwar critic in the Upper House, he has vowed to do everything he can to stop the engagement of hostilities by US forces in the region. Paul admits the best chance of defeating the measure to attack Syria is in the House of Representatives. He is also said to be considering a filibuster.

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

― Plato

Atrocities committed by Syrian rebels do not reach the level of significance perpetrated by Assad. But that does not make these incidents unimportant. Rather it reveals to the American people Islamic rebels murdered two teenaged boys for supporting the current leadership. They captured them in order to exchange them for prisoners, but they were denied.Instead of releasing them, they murdered them.

A teenage boy from Aleppo was also kidnapped and killed for the crime of blasphemy. Mohammed Katta, a coffee seller in Aleppo was shot in the mouth by Islamic fundamentalists tied to the Free Syrian Rebel army. Locals were reported to have become afraid of the fall of Assad’s regime due to this kind of wanton slaughter enacted by the FSA.

And who could forget a FSA commander eating the heart out of a government soldier? Is spending American blood and treasure on this conflict really worth it? Will democracy even be able to exist in the country after the fall of Assad? Despite Egypt’s transition from dictatorship to Democracy, the country became less liberal, not more as the people voted for radical Islamic candidates who restricted personal freedom.

What value is democracy if you don’t have freedom?