The destruction of an ancient civilization is happening right now before our eyes. The fog of war rolls in. Today, some 20 aid workers delivering supplies to the besieged city of Aleppo were killed in an attack. Emergency supplies for tens of thousands were destroyed.
The government of Syria and its ally Russia seem to think all rebels are “terrorist groups” while the United States seems to imagine that all opposition groups are “moderate rebels.”
Secretary of State John Kerry loosely blames Russia or Syria. “Russians need to control Assad, who evidently is indiscriminately bombing, including of humanitarian convoys.”
“Russian and Syrian warplanes did not carry out any airstrikes on a UN humanitarian aid convoy in the southwest of Aleppo,” says Russia Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. He continues, “We have closely studied the video footage from where the incident took place and we did not find any signs of any ammunition having hit the convoy. There are no craters, while the vehicles have their chassis intact and they have not been severely damaged, which would have been the case from an airstrike.”
With all the surveillance apparatus available, nobody sees or films exactly what happened. Nobody can even show for certain whether there is evidence of airstrikes. The fog of war is opaque.
The Red Cross doesn’t see much either. The only people who report seeing something were the “moderate rebels” who saw Russia attack the convoy. That’s not credible — especially without the usual signs of air attack.
UNITED NATIONS NOT SURE OF AIR STRIKES
U.N. humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said the references to air strikes in the original statement, attributed to the top U.N. humanitarian officials in the region and in Syria, were probably the result of a drafting error.
“We are not in a position to determine whether these were in fact air strikes. We are in a position to say that the convoy was attacked,” he said.
The seven day ceasefire that was supposed to lead to an environment conducive to ending the war is over, and it looks like it has failed. Worse yet, the United Nations has suspended all aid, leaving hundreds of thousands to fend for themselves now.
SYRIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES ATTACKED
Two days earlier, the United States government is caught bombing Syrian government forces, killing some 62 people. After the carnage, Russia orders an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. With fresh blood on the ground, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Powers takes to the press area and slams Russia.
A nervous sounding ambassador takes the podium.
We have been able to confirm that earlier today the United States struck what we believed to be an ISIL target. We halted the attack when we were informed by Russia that it was possible that we were striking Syrian regime military personnel and vehicles. We are investigating the incident. If we determine that we did indeed strike Syrian military personnel, that was not our intention. And we of course regret the loss of life.
Stop right there. Here’s the next line in a civilized world: “Thank you Russia for informing us of our mistake and preventing further loss of life from our error.” Then, head off for an amicable and private conversation to work on differences. But no. A public relations partisan campaign speech against Russia is more urgent. No longer nervous, now indignant, she continues.
Even by Russia’s standards, tonight’s stunt, a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding, is uniquely cynical and hypocritical. Since 2011, the Assad regime has been intentionally striking civilian targets with horrifying, predictable regularity. They have besieged civilian areas, prevented life saving humanitarian aid from reaching people who are starving to death, and dying of illnesses that could be treated with basic medicine which is ripped out of trucks and pocketed by Syrian regime forces. The Syrian government has patented the practice of double-tap strikes — hitting a civilian target, waiting for heroically brave individuals to run into collapsing buildings, burning buildings, and then striking again so they can hit the rescue personnel.
So much for the dead bodies. They have not even been scraped up.
The regime has routinely used chemical weapons against its own people. It has tortured tens of thousands of people in its prisons which now double as torture chambers. And indeed in those prisons, it documents systematically what it’s doing to the people in its custody — serial numbers, written notes, carefully documenting the torture of people with such savagery. Meticulous detail.
This speech sounds like the German Holocaust and Saddam Hussein’s WMDs and “rape rooms” rolled into one. The priority: demonize the Assad government — which has been in power since 1971 — for suddenly being the greatest evil ever. Insist upon “regime change.”
And yet, in the face of none of these atrocities has Russia expressed outrage. Nor has it demanded investigations. Nor has it ever called for a Saturday night emergency consultation in the Security Council, or a Monday day … If there’s a day of the week, they have never called an emergency consultation on any of these practices.
These are some of the most systematic atrocities that we have seen in a generation. And not only are they not interested in seeing these crimes investigated, they have used their veto on the Security Council to block meaningful action, even though this is the most obvious threat to international peace and security that we’ve seen in a very long time. And a year ago, at the UN General Assembly, Russia decided to join the Assad regime, escalating the conflict, and perhaps worst of all, it’s self=-adopting some of the regime’s worst practices — hitting hospitals, hitting refugee camps, hitting markets, without a single public expression of remorse.
Seriously? And they’re calling this emergency meeting? REALLY? …
What was she busy doing this Saturday night?
So why are we having this meeting tonight? It’s a diversion from what is happening on the ground in Syria. When you don’t like the facts, try to create attention somewhere else. It’s the classic magician’s slight of hand. Get the world and the media to focus here so they maybe take their eye a little bit off what’s happening over there.
When you don’t like the facts, try to create attention somewhere else. Indeed.
The Russian ambassador takes the podium.
In … all my years in international life, which is over 40 years, I’ve never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness and I’ve seen today.
PUTIN PARTY WINS RUSSIAN ELECTION
Even though popular opinion of the current ruling party of Vladimir Putin in Russia is down, the United Russia party gained seats in the legislative body, the Duma. With the recent Ukraine situation, the sanctions, the insistence upon “regime change” in Syria, and the general rhetoric, it is no wonder that Russian people are selecting their own version of ‘the lesser of two evils.’ It is all very predictable.
All of these governments could use healthy regime changes.
SAVING LIVES
If saving lives were an important issue, the answer would be easy. Leave these decades-long standing rulers in place. None of them — not Saddam Hussein, not Muammar Gaddafi, not Bashar al-Assad — killed as many people as each successive intervention has. It is not about saving lives. It is “regime change” at any price.