As of November 1, 2013 all materials in Syria that allow the production of chemical weapons have been destroyed, and the U.S. has given the country until mid-2014 to destroy the weapons. Syria’s chemical weapon supply includes multiple banned chemical,s among them sarin and mustard gas.

The U.S. government wanted to carry out and inspection of Syria to verify that the bombs producing materials have been destroyed, but was only able to do so after threatening to use force. The U.S. is hoping Syria will destroy its chemical weapons by June 30, 2014.

The chemical released was called sarin. When in contact with its liquid form, symptoms take a few minutes to appear, while as a gas its symptoms only take seconds. Small-quantity symptoms include nausea, vomiting, cough, diarrhea, confusion, weakness, headache, eye pain, blurred vision, sweating, and more.

Those exposed to small quantities are affected for a long period of time but still live, whereas those exposed to large quantities are less likely to survive.

There have been 1,429 known deaths from the attack out of Syria’s population of 22.4 million, out of those 1,429 deaths 426 were children.

Sophomore Chase McLendon said, “[The attack is bad] because it causes harm to people and makes them suffer whether they live or survive.”

Although a Saudi Arabian terrorist group has taken responsibility for the attack, it is widely suspected in the international community that the bombing was carried out by the Syrian government. There is an extensive amount of information against the Syrian government, including the fact only to government would have access to the weapon launches necessary, that makes suspecting the Syrian government reasonable.

Others including junior Daniel Sierra still strongly support the idea of the U.S. helping the people of Syria.

“I believe that not only this government should take action but other countries should take action too because I don’t think the U.S. alone can do it,” said Sierra.

“I think it [the Syrian government bombing Syria] is cruel because you’re going against your own people and if you want to have a united country you need to unite your people to have a stronger foundation,” said freshman Callee Nieves.

The chemical bombing killed many, but evasive actions have been taken to prevent an event like this from happening again. The U.S. has been very attentive to the issue and has taken many actions to resolve the problem.