For background, see
(1) Roger Cohen, “America’s Syrian Shame,” The New York Times, February 8, 2016.
(2) David E. Sanger, “Russian Intervention in Syrian War Has Sharply Reduced U.S. Options, New York Times, February 10, 2016.
“MUNICH — For months now the United States has insisted there is no military solution to the Syrian civil war, only a political accord between President Bashar al-Assad and the fractured, divided opposition groups that have been trying to topple him.
“But after days of intense bombing that could soon put the critical city of Aleppo back into the hands of Mr. Assad’s forces, the Russians may be proving the United States wrong. There may be a military solution, one senior American official conceded Wednesday, “just not our solution,” but that of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
(3) The Trenchant Observer, “Kofi Annan proves Karl Marx right: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”—Obama’s Debacle in Syria — Update #59 (July 9), July 9, 2012.
Roger Cohen captures the utter tragedy of Syria and the utter shame of the United States for having done so little, so late, to avoid the tragedy from unfolding.
David Sanger succinctly pierces, as others have done before, the Obama administration’s shibboleth that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict.
We are witnessing the collapse of Barack Obama’s foreign policy in the Middle East, except for the de-linked Iran nuclear deal. The collapse, indeed, extends far beyond the Middle East, as suggested by America’s non-response to North Korea’s nuclear break-out and launch of a satellite with a long-range missile that could soon become an ICBM.
Russian armies occupy the Ukrainian territory of the Crimea, and the eastern Ukraine. Russian military forces have intervened in the last four months in Syria, bolstering the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad while directly committing war crimes themselves on a very large scale.
Moreover, Russia is responsible under international law not only for the crimes it is now committing in Syria, but also for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian regime over the last four years. It has been complicit in supporting commission of such crimes by the al-Assad regime, and under international law is therefore responsible for these crimes.
Some 470,000 people (updated number) have died to date as a result of the atrocities committed by al-Assad and his accomplices.
See Ian Black (Middle East Editor),”Report on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured; Exclusive Syrian Centre for Policy Research says 470,000 deaths is twice UN’s figure with ‘human development ruined’ after 45% of population is displaced,” The Guardian, February 11, 2016 (00:01 h GMT).
The United States, for its part, has played a cute game of providing support to the insurgents, the military rebels who opppose Bashar al-Assad, while doing so in a manner almost if not literally designed not to have a decisive effect.
At such a juncture, it is worth recalling how predictable all of this has been, and how deep the roots of shame really are. In July, 2012, we wrote the following:
The Opening of the XXX Olympic Games
It was a poignant moment, as world leaders gathered in London last night (July 27) for the opening of the XXX Olympic Games, with the performance of an extraordinary spectacle, in which at one point five Olympic rings appeared suspended in the heavens over the Olympic Stadium. Over a billion people were said to have watched the opening ceremonies on television.
Here, in the very heart of the democratic civilizations of Europe, the Olympic ideal shone brightly.
…
The Battle for Aleppo, and the Response of the World
Meanwhile, in Aleppo in Syria, a country where the international community and the Security Council have been unable to reach agreement to act effectively to halt the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the portents of death and destruction were all too palpable yesterday and today, as the regime’s troops, tanks, artillery, helicopters and war planes began a concerted assault on the lightly armed rebels of the Syrian Liberation Army, in what a pro-Assad Damascus newspaper termed “the Mother of all Battles”.
Today, on Saturday, July 28, the battle was joined in earnest.
…
Thus, as the world turns its attention to the joyful spectacle of athletes from countries throughout the world competing on the basis of individual merit, as humanity comes together for its quadrennial celebration of the richness and diversity of the human family, the people in Aleppo and in Syria are left to face the absolute terror and barbarism of the Bashar al-Assad regime, alone.
Russia and China, along with the Syrian regime, are clearly to blame for this state of affairs, and populations who follow international affairs throughout the world are aware of the role they have have played in thwarting effective U.N. Security Council action. Memories of how they have backed the murderous regime of al-Assad are likely to be long indeed in the Middle East, and also in the democracies of the world.
The United States and other Western countries warn of an impending massacre in Aleppo, as if anyone but they themselves could save the day.
It is a new role for Americans: Eyewitness News reporters without an inkling of any sense of moral responsibility that might lead them to act. In this role, they are following the lead of their president.
The Americans, the Europeans, top U.N. officials and others loudly deplore the lamentable state of affairs in Syria in general, and the unfolding of the “mother of all battles” in Aleppo, in particular.
Leaderless, they stand helpless and paralyzed before the terror and barbarism of al-Assad.
They provide countless declarations of moral outrage, and call for the nations of the world to increase their “pressure” on the al-Assad regime.
The “pressure” of which they speak is a “pressure” of words, of plaintive moral appeals directed to war criminals whose moral depravity is beyond dispute. Or perhaps the “pressure” may even consist of voluntary economic sanctions, imposed by different countries outside the framework of the U.N. Security Council, whose impact is uncertain and in any event will take much time.
Neither words nor economic sanctions, however, will stop al-Assad’s armies.
These leaders are at once appalled by the terror, the barbarism, the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity before their very eyes, and caught in their own moral cowardice, impotent, helpless, with verbal reproaches the only weapons they have the courage to wield. Paralyzed by their own cowardice, they will not act—not effectively, not in time to avoid the thousands of additional deaths that the grinding gears of war portend to claim, and of which they so earnestly warn.
Enough with Words!
These leaders can all do the world one big favor: Stop denouncing al-Assad’s atrocities, at least until they are willing to do something really effective to bring them to a halt.
With their moral energies thus freed, they can pay close attention to the facts on the ground, to what is actually happening to thousands of human beings in the maw of war, and then they can seek quiet solace in their churches, their synagogues, their mosques, and the other spiritual refuges in which they must, as individual human beings, come to terms with what they have seen, and what they have not done.
Enough with words!
Enough with the self-absolving declarations these leaders offer to the world, and to themselves, so they can sleep at night, knowing they were present at Srebrenice, present at Auschwitz, present in Rwanda, over a very long period of time, and did nothing.
–The Trenchant Observer, “The Olympic Games, and the Battle for Aleppo, Begin—Obama’s Debacle in Syria — Update #70 (July 28),” July 28, 2012.
Actions not words, and tough actions, are now required.
The Trenchant Observer
