April 12, 2018
by Gregory Viscusi, Donna Abu-Nasr and Henry Meyer
President Donald Trump (click here) said an attack on Syria could come “very soon, or not so soon at all,” as Russian leaders urged calm and reined in their own war rhetoric.
The U.S. president said Thursday on Twitter that he “never said when an attack on Syria would take place.” The comment came roughly 24 hours after warning Russia to “get ready” for a missile attack on its ally to punish a presumed chemical attack near Damascus....
Thanks to the excellent journalism of the New York Times, this is a perfect example of why chemical weapons were banned.
April 11, 2018
By Ben Hubbard
Beirut, Lebanon — For two days and a night, (click here) the computer science student had been huddling with his family in the basement of their apartment building as pro-government forces rained bombs down on their rebel-held Syrian town.
After night fell, they heard the whirring of helicopter blades followed by the whistling sounds of objects falling from the sky. Soon, a strange smell wafted down the stairs.
“People started shouting in the streets, ‘Chemicals! Chemicals!’” the student, Mohammed al-Hanash, 25, said by phone from Syria.
The attack in the Syrian town of Douma on Saturday, which witnesses and medical workers said used chemical weapons, has resonated far beyond the war-scarred community’s destroyed buildings, ratcheting up tensions among world powers and threatening to escalate Syria’s multi-sided civil war....
The people in the basement of their apartment building are innocent, unarmed people. They do not have weapons of any kind and are not terrorists or suicide bombers. They are citizens of Douma and they are suffering because of the lack of diplomatic efforts to bring a peace to Syria.
I strongly believe President Assad has to come to the reality that Syria will not be the same since the civil war. The war broke out because of the climate crisis and it has gone on far too long. The demographics across Syria has changed and that is legal.
No one should ever hold the belief that war, sincere war where cities are razed, will result in a return to the past. That will never happen. In looking across the spectrum of any change in government or change in demographics, there are some that are bloodless, but, when war is declared and carried out, the final disposition of the loss of blood and treasure results in different boundaries and different governance. I am not going to recite every war for proof.
Syria is not the same. It will never be the same and short of rooting out the existence of Daesh everywhere, the Syrians of ethnic and religious difference are living in different regions of Syria than before. Now, if that is displeasing to President Assad then he was never willing to accept the outcome of the civil war in an impoverished country.
Simply because he is displeased doesn't not give him the right to kill according to his preferences. That is a human rights abuse and quite frankly, genocide considering the population densities in the country. It is very easy to wipe out diverse cultures in Syria as some of the populations are small, but, that doesn't change the fact Assad would then be judged by the world in which he lives.
Stepping back from the ravages of the Daesh regime is to realize the success of the Arab nations that have joined together to end this terror. They are successful with only small remnants to arrest and put on trial. If Daesh members die in the process of being taken into custody by Syrian forces, at least President Assad attempted to end the conflict without bloodshed.
As to other rebel groups in the region that may be in Syria, there needs to be diplomacy with them to find a way forward that will return the people of Syria back to lives they understand. The children need to be returned to schools that will provide for the brain trust of Syria that will improve the quality of their lives. The tasks before the people and President Assad are enormous. There needs to be water sources secured and farmland has to be returned to farmers, where and if that is possible.
The world has wept for the people of Syria and it is time to end conflict and killing; remove remnants of Daesh from the cities and towns, establish priorities of jobs, water and food. Syria is a no man's land and needs to rebuild its' cities and places of worship. In carrying out all those tasks, the pilgrims will return and Syria's economy can be redefined.
But, the question now stands, what is Syria, who exactly lives within it's borders in peace and how does the government maintain a peace that includes diversity among people and religions. I look forward to answers to all those questions.
