While the millennial generation has a reputation for apathetic members, Bucks County Community College students voiced concern for both America and Syria, as well as questioning the countries’ governments when asked about the bombings.

“I agree and disagree with the Syria bombing. It’s unfair, since not everyone in Syria is involved, such as the citizens, which doesn’t justify why it occurred. The United States bombed Syria simply to validate Trump’s tweets. While the U.S. has their reasons, they need to be more aware of the Syrian citizens that will be hurt by this,” said Jose Castillo, 19 and a Business Administration major from Bensalem.

Jose wasn’t one-sided in his opinions though, and thought the attack had good intentions as well; “The United States can justify the attack because the Syrian government used chemical weapons to attack civilians outside of the city of Douma, killing innocent people. If the places where chemical weapons are being created were not bombed, the Syrian president could use those weapons on civilians again. He should not even be using chemical weapons in the first place, let alone killing people with them.”

For Jose, there are noticeable pros and cons to the bombing, with the ideal lying somewhere in the middle. Other students however, were critical of the United States government, calling it an unnecessary attack in an effort to simply intimidate U.S. adversaries like Russia.

“I do not agree with the reasoning behind the bombing of Syria. Trump wanted to flex his ‘military muscle’ for Russia to see. Trump was quoted saying, ‘No one is harder on Russia than President Trump.’ Though no civilians have been found dead, it was an unnecessary exercise of force and destruction,” said Michael O’Brien, 19 and an engineering major from Philadelphia.

Bobby Quinn, 19 and an Electrical and Computer engineering major from Richboro had similar thoughts; “I do not think the United States should have become involved in Syria. We have enough domestic problems currently, we need to become more isolationist and focus more on the United States. We do not need another proxy war like the war in Vietnam.”

The suggestion of a proxy war is controversial. While a “proxy war” is defined by the Merriam Webster as ‘a war instigated by a major power that does not itself become involved’, it’s difficult to speculate how the United States involvement in the Syrian bombing and Syrian refugee crisis will unfold.

Tyler Cook, a 25-year-old music major from Doylestown honed in on Trump, criticizing his motives and the ethical implications of the bombing. “I honestly do not know enough to confidently say one way or the other that I agree or disagree with the bombing of Syria. I’m conflicted; what I know about Trump leads me to believe that this was a rash decision and not vetted well by his advisors. However, due to the issues in Syria, I believe those people needed help and the U.S. government could not wait for all of the possible scenarios to be played out, resulting in more Syrians dying. But, I know that innocent people will die, and I find that the chances that Trump is doing this out of the goodness of his heart are slim to none.”

While there’s no easy solution to the bombing, with some gently coining it ‘unnecessary’ and others upset by its implications for the American, it is clear that the millennial generation and the college’s students in particular, have strong opinions on what the future of American international policy should look like.