The Ouster of the Assad Regime will End the Refugee Crisis

The crisis in Syria has affected not only Syria, but the entire Middle East. Perhaps the most damaging legacy of the war has been the human dimension. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 200,000 people have died, and more than three million Syrian citizens have been forced to flee Syria; an additional six million were forced to leave their homes and flee to other places within Syria. Consequently, there are about 10 million Syrians displaced or killed by the war. The ripple effect of this crisis has been felt by everyone in the region, and the humanitarian tragedy has continued to reverberate around the world as refugee camps are no longer able to care for everyone seeking help, and refugees risk their lives being smuggled through deserts and across oceans to reach Europe. 

Some believe that the fall of the Assad regime is the only way to end the refugees crisis, enable them to return to their homeland, and begin to rebuild a new democratic Syria from the rubble of Assad's war against the revolution. Yet, others believe that the answer is not so simple, and the Syrian refugee crisis will not end with the fall of the Assad regime. Negotiations between the rebels and the government were difficult before the rise of the "Islamic State", and now with the emergence of this third party, negotiations on how to rebuild are sure to bring forward continued uncertainty and violence. With each party not recognizing the legitimacy of the other, a compromise would likely fail, leaving Syria in a continued power vacuum. 

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