Weapons of Mass Destruction Use Increasing by Axis of Evil Rogue States and with Diminished Threshol
There have been a series of comments from political partisans in the US blaming President’s Trumps suggestion that perhaps it was time to withdraw US military forces from Syria as the trigger for Syrian dictator President Assad’s latest chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people. Those political partisans in Washington have a right to their opinion, but their reasoning while convenient, is faulty.
Assad has used chemical weapons on his own population repeatedly since 2013 when the Syrian military violated then US President Barak Obama‘s so-called ‘redline’ and the US did nothing in response. Last year, in April, Assad backed by his Russian and Iranian allies used Sarin nerve agent on the town of Khan Sheikoun killing some 83 people and injuring 300 others. Russia had guaranteed the international community that Syria was free of chemical weapons and in response to the threat of US military action and escalation in 2013, and Vladimir Putin lied to the Obama administration to get it to backdown from further military action. Most of the victims in the 2017 attack were overwhelmingly women and children. Saturday’s attack on Douma saw the Syrian regime employ what is believed to be a choking and nerve agent on an unprotected civilian population and 49 people were killed 500 injured and again the majority appear to be women and children. In the aftermath of the Khan Sheikoun attack in 2017, President Trump responded by firing 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles at the airfield that launched the deadly chemical strike and knocking out 20 percent of Assad air force on the ground. It seems likely that in the next 24-48 hours that we can see a similar response with potential British and French forces joining in the one of retaliatory attack on a Syrian target or targets. It would be a measured response, in fact Israel’s airstrike on the Syrian T4 airbase this morning may set the tone for US Coalition strikes on Syria.
While, it is convenient to blame US President Trump, it is hard when presented with the facts to make it stick. The blame for this latest atrocity falls completely on Syrian President Assad and his military, and those that keep him in power, Iran and Russia. Iran is the terrorist mega state of the Middle East expanding its cancerous influence on Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Egypt, and Yemen. The other key enabler is Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Let’s not forget that November of 2006, President Putin had his intelligence services use radioactive tea to kill a former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, UK. The Russians used tea as a simple radiological dispersal device, in this case, radionuclide polonium-210, on British soil to kill a political opponent. Just recently this year, in Salisbury, UK, Russian agents again employed a weapon of mass destruction, in this case Novichok nerve agent, to try kill a former Russian agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. Both were targeted for killing on British soil using a weapon of mass destruction and three British police officers were injured in the attempt and areas in Salisbury were feared as contaminated but that is all in a day’s work for Vladimir Putin and his Federal Security Bureau supporters. We would be remiss not to point out the North Korean assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half brother Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia by VX nerve agent. Two of three of North Korea’s enablers and allies are Iran and Russia. In all three incidents what was the response of the countries involved and the international community? Splintered diplomatic relations and expressions of concern but precious little in terms of anything else. Given the circumstances, what is stopping Assad from using chemical weapons against his own people on a repeated basis and Putin, Kim, and the Ayatollahs from using weapons of mass destruction wherever they want if they do it on a limited basis. Trump is just left holding the bag.
The good news is that in May, Syria will takeover the Presidency of the UN Conference on Disarmament that banned Chemical Weapons.
