The world is in crisis, and Syria is at the epicenter. The U.S. executive branch and the Department of Defense must stop instituting double standards, such as, “do as I say but not as I do” which is the leading cause of war in the 21st century.
President Barack Obama is currently teetering over the decision of whether or not to order Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to dispatch a U.S. military strike against Syria. Such an attack, strategic or otherwise, would be a tragic move that would impact millions of people, including Americans. Aside from U.S. media propaganda, there is no proof that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians.
The double standard is enmeshed in the fact that the U.S. planned and facilitated the deaths of thousands of innocent Iranian civilians with the exact chemical weapons that our leaders are accusing Syria of using.
According to newly unclassified CIA documents, made public in Foreign Policy Magazine, not only did the United States plot the excruciating demise of innocent Iranian families in 1987, with satellite imagery delivered to Saddam Hussein, but we also supplied the chemical weapons for the attack.
Now the U.S. is considering an unlawful attack on a sovereign country for a crime that we have ourselves committed. The world will not look kindly on that.
Discussions coming out of international scientific webinars indicate the Syrian tragedy was a staged event, most likely perpetrated by the rebels. The details do not make chemical sense.
Sarin poisoning, a nerve agent, presents opposing criteria to what is seen in the videos — most significantly, that water functions as a catalyst for sarin, which can be absorbed directly or inhaled. Its effects are immediate and fatal.
In nearly every video available, Syrian victims are seen surrounded with water and civilian rescuers. If sarin was used, anyone making contact with the water or victim would have been affected. Because sarin is a phosphorous, there would have likely been burns on the victims as well.
There are common mixtures that would produce unconsciousness and even death that are not classified as chemical weapons. For instance, household bleach mixed with acetone and ice water can make a noxious gas. That would be consistent with the horrendous scenes in the videos with supplies easily accessible to either side.
The U.S. cannot prescribe or implement punishment for suspected Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. It is the job of the International Criminal Court. The ICC has successfully tried many cases, such as Slobodan Milosevic, convicted for war crimes against civilians under his control.
That is not to say that Assad is innocent or hasn’t committed war crimes. But the case must be put in the proper arena, which is the ICC. Valid evidence must be presented and examined by objective, unbiased investigators. A military strike from the U.S. would constitute a war crime, as it would cause even more civilian casualties.
The U.N. chemical weapons inspectors are on the ground in Syria investigating the claims now. On May 6th, they deemed chemical weapons were used by the rebels in a previous attack. Ban Ki-moon justly stated that no decision should be considered without the investigators’ report.
The U.S. cannot use military might without U.N. approval. A lesson that should have been learned when there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If we set that precedent, Russia could use the same standard to attack Saudi Arabia for crimes against humanity. Iran could do the same to Israel for the same reason.
Assad is winning the war without chemical weapons; he has no reason to start using them now, especially just days before he agreed to allow the U.N. weapons inspectors into his country. The rebels, on the other hand, are losing the war and have every reason to stage this atrocity to pin blame on the government.