How Will the U.S. Act?

People in the Middle East are concerned about the future of democracy and the economy in this region.  So are Americans, and Jordanians see this.  A main topic in today's news in Jordan is what is the U.S. going to do about the rising tension between Israel and Iran and the escalating conflict in Syria?  Both issues are actually interlinked.

Many Jordanians look on as the U.N. does little to intervene in Syria because of Russia and China’s choice to veto certain provisions and actions.  Yet, every day more and more refugees from Syria pour into northern Jordan, and Jordanians become more concerned as the conflict heats up between Israel and Iran, making threats at each other of bombings.

Jordan earned the nickname “a rock in a hard place” because of its politalic stability, even in the midst of the Arab Spring, and its regional location between other politically unstable and threatened places.  At this time Jordanians can only sympathize with Syrians who are being massacred by their government for protests and desires for political freedom and reform.  According to The New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, Hezbollah will be weakened significantly if the Syrian people manage to topple the Assad regime, and this weakening of Hezbollah in Syria could decrease Iran’s hold on militant Islam in the region.

As Israel and Iran continue to make threats at each other, they are reaching the brink of potential war; yet, in a way, they are also deterring it.  Foreign policy analysts have commented that both sides do not want to see a war break out, and I believe that Jordanians would not want to see one either since their country lays between the two hegemons.  I believe that Jordanians want to turn their attention to helping those in Syria rather than be involved in a new war across their airspace.

I know this: Jordanians are judging American international actors by their actions and not just by their words.  Al-Jazeera is watched by many Jordanians, and they see the continued violence in Syria and the inaction of the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly.  Some sanctions have already been approved against Syria, but Jordanian students, who see members their same age and younger being slaughtered by their government, feel that more can be done.  Many have already sent pieces of clothing and food to Syrian refugees in northern Jordan, but this cannot stop the massacres but only tend to the wounds of civil war.  Jordanians ask, “How will the world, specifically the U.S., act in the midst of this inhumanity?”