Dec
[Halabja’s] 70,000 or so inhabitants, many of whom were refugees from outlying areas, had already been pounded for two days from the surrounding mountain heights by conventional artillery, mortars and rockets. Many families had spent the night in their basements to escape the bombs. When the gas came, however, that was the worst place to be since the toxic chemicals, heavier than air, concentrated in low-lying areas. Between and 4,000 and 5,000 people, almost all civilians, died either at the time or shortly thereafter.
Hewa, a university student, survived by covering his face with a wet cloth and taking to the mountains around the city. He says that Iraqi warplanes followed, dropping more chemical bombs. “I got some gas in my eyes and had trouble breathing. You always wanted to vomit and when you did, the vomit was green. He says he passed “hundreds” of dead bodies. Those around him died in a number of ways, suggesting a combination of toxic chemicals. Some “just dropped dead.” Others “died of laughing.” Others took a few minutes to die, first “burning and blistering” or “coughing up green vomit.” Journalists noted that the lips of many corpses had turned blue.
Description of the Halabja poison gas attack, which killed perhaps as many as 15,000 civilians.
Sarin, an “extraordinarily lethal” nerve gas, was used in the Halabja attack. According to a recent report, Syrian President Bashar Assad has loaded sarin into aerial bombs “that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers.”
Mar
Foreign Policy Ideas: A Rant in List Form
1. Withdraw from Afghanistan this year, not in 2013. We succeeded in killing 22 of 30 top al-Qaeda leaders. Osama is dead. Saddam is dead. The war on terror is over.
2. Cut military spending by another $150 billion (in addition to President Obama’s $450 billion).
3. Make it clear that we are not willing, regardless of Israel’s actions, to attack Iran unless clear evidence is provided that Iran is currently building nuclear weapons (and even then, we have the right to consider containment as an option). Israel is of course an indispensable ally but to equate a pro-Israel stance with a pro-Netanyahu stance is a mistake. We will always be allies with the UK, France, etc. but we need not support their every foreign policy decision and they need not always support ours. Sometimes, a successful relationship entails telling the other person they are wrong.
4. Cut ties with Pakistan. They either knew about bin Laden or were too incompetent to find him. Either way, they don’t deserve the billions of dollars in aid we’ve given them.
5. Build a stronger alliance with India. They are a developing democracy, posses nuclear weapons, have one of the largest economies in the world, and are not sabotaging our humanitarian efforts in the UN (unlike Russia and China). India is clearly a more natural ally than Pakistan.
6. Provide better mental health services for the military. In 2009 and 2010, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to enemy combatants.
7. Work with our allies to provide humanitarian relief and safe havens in Turkey and Jordan for those escaping death and persecution in Syria. Depending on the circumstances, cautiously consider providing weapons and training to anti-Assad forces.
Mar
$1,000,000,000
This is the amount of money made by the Russian government from selling weapons to Syria, according to the Washington Post.
Despite international pressure, Russia has actually increased arm sales to Assad’s regime.
It’s estimated that more than 7,000 Syrians have been killed since the uprising began a year ago.
Mar
Obama Admin to Aid Syrian Opposition
Last week, a group of senior Obama administration officials met to finalize a package of options for aiding both the internal and external Syrian opposition, to include providing direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition…
This meeting…set forth a new and assertive strategy for expanding U.S. engagement with Syrian activists and providing them with the means to organize themselves, but stops short of providing any direct military assistance to the armed opposition.
For now, riskier options, such as creating a no-fly zone in Syria, using U.S. military force there, or engaging directly with the Free Syrian Army, are all still off the table. But the administration has decided not to oppose, either in public or in private, the arming of the rebels by other countries, the officials said.
Mar
Feb
U.S. Department of State: Support for the People of Syria
In what sense are these “steps” a solution to an uprising/civil war? I’m glad attention is being paid to Assad’s crimes but keeping track of the number of Syrians he’s killed is hardly a preventive measure that will protect future victims.
Dr. Esther Brimmer serves as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.
Earlier today, I spoke before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where I joined many other nations gathered to demand an end to the Assad government’s outrageous and ongoing crimes against the people of Syria. Syrian civilians and international journalists risk their lives daily to inform the world of the horrendous scale of slaughter and suffering, and the Commission of Inquiry launched by the UN Human Rights Council last August concluded that the Syrian government forces have perpetrated crimes against humanity. No one can deny that Bashar al-Assad and his regime are waging a brutal campaign of slaughter, bombardment, torture, and arrest that already has murdered thousands of women, men, and children, with more killed each day.
As I said earlier today, the Syrian government must immediately halt its attacks on civilians, withdraw its military and security forces to their barracks, and release the many civilians, including journalists, whom it has detained arbitrarily. The government must grant humanitarian access to the country without delay, allowing much-needed food, water, and medical assistance to be delivered to the Syrian people. All states should heed the call of conscience, and halt any financial or other support to the Syrian government, including arms or materiel transfers, and must back UN-Arab League Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan.
The way forward is clear. In the coming weeks, the UN Human Rights Council must extend the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry, so that it can continue to investigate and document the gross human rights violations being committed in Syria, providing evidence to support accountability for the senior Syrian officials who have planned and perpetrated these atrocities. Finally, Assad must go. There must be a Syrian-led democratic political transition that meets the long-suppressed aspirations of the Syrian people.
The international community supports these essential steps as the solution to the violence in Syria. They are at the core of the plan the Arab League has put forward. They were further endorsed in Tunis last week by the Group of Friends of Syria. They were backed by an overwhelming majority in the General Assembly resolution adopted on February 16, 2012. And although thirteen members of the Security Council supported these steps earlier this month, indefensible vetoes by two permanent members gave Assad cover to accelerate his war on the Syrian people.
Syrian women, men, and children face murder and starvation at the hands of their own government, simply because they demand respect for the universal human rights the Human Rights Council exists to protect and advance. Let us demonstrate today that the world stands united with the people of Syria, for it is they who represent their country’s future, just as Assad and his regime represent its past.
Feb
Feb
People are, of course, tweeting about Syria, but interest seems to be more concentrated among activists or Middle East specialists.
The wider social media audience hasn’t engaged in the way it did with Iran and Egypt. As we can see from these estimates below, the volume of Syria-related tweets (as a percentage of overall tweets) appears considerably lower than the volume related to the uprisings in Egypt and Iran.
The estimates were constructed using multiple published Web sources reporting on number of tweets for the observed events as well as total Twitter traffic over time, including Twitter’s blog, Customer Insight Group, Mashable, the Sysomos blog, and a dataset acquired via Twapperkeeper.
The estimates are not precise but should be roughly representative of the average Twitter traffic at the observed time period.
Slate: Social revolution fatigue - why don’t we care about Syria?
Feb
Stunning Report from Syria
Incredible footage.
Feb
Is intervention in Syria a moral and human imperative at this point?
“I don’t really think there is any kind of a reasonable argument against intervention in Syria. Quite the opposite: There is a moral and a human imperative to act that is larger than any nation’s interests and larger than any strategic calculation. That is so obvious it is an embarrassment to have to say it.”
—Kanan Makiya, “Interventionin Syria is a Moral and Human Imperative”
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Feb
Anti-Assad mourners carry the coffins of two protesters during a demonstration in Damascus
I love this photo. These people deserve our support.
Feb
What Can We Do About Syria?
Everyone seems to agree that the uprising/civil war in Syria is a crisis that will only get much worse before it gets better. This week’s Economist describes the dire situation:
With up to several hundred projectiles raining into Homs every hour, the nationwide casualty toll has surged from around 20 a day to more than 50. Transport and telephone links, along with power, water and fuel supplies have been severed to many of the stricken areas, which were poor to begin with and have seen their incomes shrivel during the long months of unrest. With thousands of civilians choosing to abandon their homes despite cold winter weather, Syria is likely soon to confront a grave internal refugee crisis within its sealed borders. “We ask for nothing from the world, except for coffins, since there are not enough of them here for our bodies,” declares a sarcastic tweet from Homs.
Although the UN has called for the ouster of President Assad, the forces behind the dictator’s bloody regime are relentless in their support. Russia has been supplying the mass murderers in Syria with weapons. Just recently, the Russian government made $550 million by selling Assad combat jets. The bombs dropping onto the houses of innocent Syrians might as well have “Made in Russia” stamps printed on them.
So what can we do this about this? Bombing operations in Syria are not predicted to have the same effectiveness as the bombing campaign that helped topple Gaddafi. The disorganization of the rebel forces also calls into question the effectiveness of supplying weapons to the opposition (although some European countries have said they’ll arm anti-Assad forces anyway). Russia has both financial and strategic interests in propping up Assad and thus is unlikely to stop supporting him.
The answer may lie with Turkey and Jordan. Safe havens could be set up along the Syrian border. These havens would not just be a place for fleeing Syrians to escape to. It could also be the headquarters of a more organized and inclusive rebel force. It will take some Western allies to support this plan and some financial commitment as well. Once the forces grow stronger, they could be trained and supplied with weapons. In this scenario, we could protect Syrians from being murdered and build a stronger army to take down Assad.
If we are the champions of democracy, we must not let Assad brutally destroy his own people as Saddam Hussein did. Nonintervention could mean years of brutal oppression and mass murder. If we avoid the problem now, we risk much graver consequences in the future.
Feb
Russia is Making Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Selling Weapons to Mass Murderers in Syria
from AP: Russia will not stop selling arms to Syria, a top defense official said Thursday, as Moscow stands by its longtime ally despite mounting international condemnation over the Syrian regime’s bloody crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising. Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said his country is not violating any international obligations by selling weapons to Damascus. “As of today there are no restrictions on our delivery of weapons,” he told journalists in Russia, according to the country’s state news agencies. “We must fulfill our obligations and this is what we are doing.” Moscow has been one of Syria’s most powerful allies - along with Iran - as Syria tries to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad. The U.N. estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed in the government crackdown. Moscow’s stance is motivated in part by its strategic and defense ties, including weapons sales, with Syria. But Russia also rejects what it sees as a a world order dominated by the U.S. Last month, Russia reportedly signed a $550-million deal to sell combat jets to Syria.
Feb
Anthony Shadid: Voice of the People
Shadid already knew he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, but as the minutes slipped away for a 2 p.m. departure to Dulles International Airport, it was Laila who was uppermost in his mind. He’d missed half his daughter’s life during his yearlong tour in Iraq. “The worst part of this job is what you put other people through,” said Shadid…
