Like many of you, I read Mr. Gaddis’ column “America has a responsibility to all,” and maybe unlike many of you, I am worried about what his article was advocating. His article is nothing but a half-masked call to invade Syria in order to put an end to the human rights abuses.

Mr. Gaddis, how many American lives are you willing to trade for Syrian lives? America has tried your idea in the past and, believe it or not, it hasn’t always worked out for us. Vietnam, Granada, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq are all places where we traded American lives overseas to help another country’s population, with no advantage to us.

Instead of worrying about a foreign country halfway around the world, why don’t you take a minute and look around at things that you could advocate for right here in our own country. What about the current attempt at Internet censorship through SOPA/PIPA? What about the police abuses against the Occupy Wall Street groups? What about the NDAA, which allows the administration to hold American citizens indefinitely without trial?

Now I understand none of these pull at the heartstrings of the reader quite as well as the murder of Syrians (although the story of Iraq vet Scott Olson being shot in the head with a 40mm tear gas grenade at Occupy Oakland does have a similar ring to it), but they all have a direct impact here at home that don’t involve sending other people overseas to get shot at.

Mr. Gaddis, if you really do believe that “the U.S. facilitates the important role of policing the world” as much as your article says, there is something that you can do to participate in that role. I know of a couple of recruiters right off of campus that would be more than willing to put you in a position to help these people firsthand.

Drew Springall is a junior majoring in computer science.