Lately, there has been an impeccable uproar on the topic of Syria regarding their chemical weapons and rebel attacks on the Syrian people. Regardless, if these rebels are extremists, al-Qaeda or moderates, these people are not who we want to be supporting or associating with.

For one, with the al-Qaeda present, we need to be careful of where our loyalty seems present. Also, many of these extremists, given the opportunity, could gravitate toward al-Qaeda later on.

However, as the citizens of America and not of Syria, our focus should be on how our president is handling the situation and how his actions will affect the integrity of the US government.

President Obama seems so convinced that having our military strike Syria is a noble thing to do at this point, but not many people seem to agree with him. Shouldn’t the facts that only France is willing to help us and that 225 of the House of Representatives have already shown that they are likely to oppose Obama’s proposition be enough to show him that he is not making the right decisions?

And not only that, but he is proving himself to be hypocritical to his original ideals.

President Obama called out President Bush years ago for even considering something similar and now, nearly without a second thought, wants to follow through with what he once claimed to be against. I think the real terror for Americans in this situation is that we are unleashing the true colors of a president we have put all of our faith in—and perhaps we don’t know this man like we thought we did.

Last Friday, September 6th, Obama appeared before a group of people in Russia, trying to talk about how to “attack” the crisis with Syria. ABC News captured this endeavor that unraveled many interesting comments from our President. Part of the way through his speech he was asked a question:

 “If Congress fails to authorize this, will you go forward with the attack on Syria?”

President Obama’s response was hair-raising when he nearly snapped back:

“You are not getting any direct response [about that].”

ABC News also claims through their research that: “Any military action would be illegal unless it is authorized by the U.N. Security Council.”

If our President is so secretive of what he is planning on doing, how can we possibly continue to put our trust in him? This isn’t just listening to our phone calls anymore. Is our leader capable of defying Congress and going through with attacking Syria even without the approval from not only other nations and our government, but also without the approval of the citizens of America?

If President Obama were to follow through with an attack on Syria without authorization, what would this mean for our country and our leader? How can we possibly back up a President who is considering on breaking the law to go back into a military standpoint after he promised for years that he would bring our troops home safe and work on other ways to help the world other than by force?

It seems that our President isn’t the icon we should be following in order to maintain a strong and confident nation. After all, if he cannot stand to his values from years ago, how will we stand our ground for other scenarios that come our way—nationwide or even individually. A country looks up to her leaders. Are our current president’s actions the ones we want to look up to and take as personal examples?

President Obama is an idealist. He has respectable views and honorable ideas of where our country to go, but he doesn’t have the best ways to execute such ideas. Like many of the world’s leaders, he knows what could lead to a successful nation—but the actions that go along with his theories are a bit off queue

What are Obama’s true intentions? Where do Obama’s loyalties lie? We’re beginning to see a side of a president most of us wanted so desperately to believe was never going to show.

Perhaps our President should take a step down into humility and accept the help of people who can evolve his ideas into proper action. We are a democracy for a reason.

Jessica Tomcheck is a freshman psychology major. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com