With all of the controversy surrounding the presidential elections, we are constantly looking inward to the steady flow of materialistic problems our country faces. Who said what to make who mad this time? We often find ourselves trapped in a glass bubble floating carelessly around unaware of the ocean of troubles that surrounds us. The world is a scary place. For some, everyday could be a matter of life or death.

That is what it is like right now in Aleppo, a city in the northwest corner of Syria. Ravaged by civil war and left in ruins, hundreds of thousands of surviving inhabitants have been isolated and deprived for months. Currently, the used-to-be commercial and historical hub is being held by rebel groups in opposition of the corrupt Syrian government. As a result, the city has become a bullseye target for the Syrian army and pummeled by relentless fire. Bombings are a regular event. Even a hospital, a luxury in war-times, was struck over this conflict. Aleppo has become nothing more than a skeleton of the metropolis it used to be.

The Syrian army, with the complete support of Russia, hasn’t stopped on its path of destruction. Only, this time they have chosen a new method of warfare: starvation. Through blockading tactics preventing anyone from going in or out of the city, no supplies are reaching those in need. Food is scarce. Families are forced to wait in long lines for limited amounts of bread. Markets are a dream from the past with absolutely nothing to sell. This is what infamous Bashar al-Assad and his government are doing to their own people. By targeting innocent civilians who just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, Assad’s regime is losing the little humanity it had in the first place.

So why should we care?

The United States has historically devoted itself to securing freedom not only for its own citizens, but for people everywhere. The Syrian Civil War has gone on far too long. It is estimated that up to 400,000 people have perished in the crossfire, thousands of which haled from Aleppo. Human rights atrocities are committed on the daily, and it is the burden taken by the United States with the United Nations and the rest of the free world to do everything in its power to protect those in danger.

Aleppo is a dying city, but its people are still alive, barely hanging on, at risk of death around every corner. It is not okay to allow Russia to sponsor this. The friendship between Putin and Assad is poisonous for both country’s inhabitants. It is in the everyone’s best interest to act on this but more importantly to understand it. It is doubtful that anyone will hear of Aleppo at an upcoming presidential debate, unfortunately, because, for some reason, we can’t seem to listen to anything else but hateful rhetoric. For those trapped in Aleppo, I hope this changes soon.