President Obama's coldly articulated redline regarding the
use of chemical weapons might just translate into a greenlight for more frenzied
killing sprees by Assad and his militias.
Monday August
20, 2012
Cities
& Towns Under Shelling: Harasta, Arbeen, Moadamiah, Harran Al-Awameed, Deir Al-Asafeer, Ain
Terma, Zabadani, Madaya, Eltal, Dmeir, Hameh, Yelda, Rankous, Qarrah (Damascus
Suburbs), Sit Zeinab, Al-Qadam, Midan,
Tadamon, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Yarmouk, Kafar Sousseh, Mazzeh, Qaboun, Barzeh,
Salhiyeh, Ruknaddine, Dafelshawk (Damascus City), Daraa City, Khirbet Al-Ghazaleh, Tafas, Bostra Al-Sham, Na’eemah,
Mseifrah, Jimreen, Hraak (Daraa), Rastan, Talbisseh, Houla, Tal Kalakh, Al-Qusayr, Al-Hosn, Al-Ghanto,
Al-Bouaydah, Old Homs (Homs Province), Hreitan, Elbab, Eizaz, Marei, Bayanoun, Dar Azzah, Manbij,
Anadan (Aleppo Province), Haffeh, Jabal Al-Akrad (Lattakia), Deir Ezzor City, Mouhassan, Albou Kamal (Deir
Ezzor Province), Kafar Zeiteh, Hawash,
Shahshabo, Hama City (Hama Province), Jabal Al-Zawiyeh, Ma’rrat Al-Nouman, Saraqib, Maar Shoureen,
Ariha, Kafroumah, Al-Rami, Khan Shaikhoon (Idlib).
News
In his recent
White House press briefing, President Obama said that he had not "ordered
military engagement" in Syria, but noted that he might change his
"calculus" should "we see a whole bunch of chemical weapons
moving around, or being utilized," by the Assad regime, as this
development, for him, as he pointed out, would constitute a "redline."
By framing things this way at a time when Assad's MIGs,
helicopter gunships, missiles and heavy artillery are pounding residential
neighborhoods and civilian installations, including schools and hospitals, in
villages, towns and cities all across Syria claiming hundreds of lives every
day, President Obama's redline will most likely be taken by Assad as greenlight
for sticking to his bloody tactics to the bitter end. After all, he was just
told by the most powerful man in the world that he has no plans to stop him.
President Obama, a Nobel Prize laureate, also showed more
concern for the regional ramification of using biological weapons than for the
humanitarian cost involved. He said: "It doesn't just include Syria. It
would concern allies in the region, including Israel, and it would concern
us."
Why President Obama would be so callous about the tragedy
unfolding in Syria is beyond me. Why slaughter would be deemed tolerable if it happened one way and not another
remains an enigma. Be that as it may, President Obama has just told millions of
Syrians that their suffering simply does not concern him, that his cold
calculus does not leave much room for compassion.
Coming from the most powerful man in the world, the man who
just last year invoked the Responsibility to Protect to stop carnage in Libya,
this is an unfathomable and cynical abdication of moral responsibility. The
Syrian people who dared yearn to be free will pay dearly for it. But down the
road, so will America, and so will the rest of the world.
For devoid of her moral compass, America will be no
different than Russia and China - just another cynical superpower in it for
herself, and nothing more. American exceptionalism will come to an end. Many in
America and across the world would rejoice, but the world will be left
leaderless, and without any reliable mechanism for collective decision-making
and consensus building. This will not be a better world, as so many envision,
but a cold dark one, filled with conflicts, suffering and tumult.
Syria will be forgotten then, but her torn pieces will
continue to bleed. By the time, the
world grasped that Syria is nothing less than its beating heart, it will be too
late.
Meanwhile, thank you Mr. President, and Happy Eid to you
too.
Antakya, Turkey
Go(o)d said.
ReplyDeleteI agree http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/20/1122237/-BREAKING-Obama-green-lights-Assad-s-slaughter-in-Syria
ReplyDeleteYour observations about America, moral compass and Obama are dead on. Pity most Americans did not understand that in 2008. Unfortunately the America of the present and future is going to have more in common with France than the pre-Obama America.
ReplyDelete