Editorial: A Firm Hand on the Atrocities in Syria
The Trump Administration did the right thing when it assumed its responsibility to act on this crisis. It was right to call Russia out at the UN Security Council.
The use of chemical weapons against the Syrian population is a war crime. It is a despicable act that deserves taking President Bashir al-Assad to international court.
In order to do that, the bloody Syrian regime, which has the full support of Russia, must be removed.
Vladimir Putin’s government says that the gas was released when a rebel-controlled chemical weapon factory was bombed, even though he vetoed the United Nations (UN) from reviewing Syrian fight plans.
No one is buying this version. Al-Assad has a history of using this type of weapon in 2013, 2014 and 2015. It is very hard for the opposition to produce them. In addition, several reports indicate that UN investigations showed that the weapons used for this attack matched the ones contained in the arsenal that Syria refused to hand over to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013.
The Trump Administration did the right thing when it assumed its responsibility to act on this crisis, after it first reacted by blaming former President Obama of the events. It was right to call Russia out at the UN Security Council.
It is encouraging to see Trump saying that his position regarding al-Assad is changing and that this attack has crossed several lines, referring to an expression originally used by Obama.
Still, after horrors such as the one we have seen this time, a torrent of statements of sadness, indignation and countless empty words tends to emerge.
It remains to be seen what Trump’s words really mean. For the rest of the world, it matters if the President of the Unites States, who is supporting the Syrian leader’s continuity, says that he is changing his mind.
On several occasions, Trump has demonstrated that words do not have much meaning to him; that what he once said may be interpreted in different ways. Ambiguity is the last thing this tragedy needs.
They Syrian civil war has already led to 300,000 dead, 5 million refugees and 13.5 million displaced. The death of these children by chemical weapons is yet another desperate cry, another shudder to stop the actions of the country’s government against its population.
Trump likes to say that he is not the president of the world, but the United States has an important role alongside its allies to end this crime against humanity.
