LARRY GROSSMAN
Guest Columnist
editorial@lbknews.com
Ridding Syria of chemical weapons can be a notable achievement and could serve as a deterrent for other regime challenged dictators from resorting to their use. Seizing and destroying the chemical weapons will also deny Al-Qaeda from using the chaos in Syria to their advantage by getting a hold of the chemicals and their delivery systems.
The key toward what some would say a US gaffed and Russian brokered agreement was the President’s threat of use of military strikes against Syria. It was a bit embarrassing, however, that where the President wanted to lead few wanted to follow domestically or internationally. Putin seized upon the impasse and changed his role from obstructer to facilitator. Who will direct this process, its success and what if anything will be done if the Assad regime reneges on this agreement are yet to be known.
However, the civil war goes on by other means far more destructive. A Frontline video shows Syrian Air Force jets dropping bombs on villages causing mayhem and murder for people who are already refugees in their own country. So one might say that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad Regime was an act of desperation to clear out resistant rebel strongholds near Damascus or maybe a calculated diversion to focus international attention to a weapon which the world abhors but which is an inefficient and ineffective weapon of war-making. We are now in a situation where the US must work with Assad in accomplishing the goal of inventorying, collecting, verifying and destroying chemical weapons which may take up to a year. Putin will be in a key position to protect Assad, if he chooses to do so, from the wrath of the US to punish Assad for gassing his citizens and violating international law.
The President has been reluctant, to say the least, to involve the US in a civil war. Though he wants to rid Syria of the al-Assad dynasty he’s not about to authorize boots on the ground. He is also wary of arming elements among the opposition forces who are motivated by Jihadist dreams of taking over Syria and making into an Islamist State. Meanwhile, refugees pour out of the country and burden neighboring states to accommodate people desperately fleeing Syria for their lives.
Over the two years of civil strife, however, with thousands killed and millions displaced, the Administration has yet to devise a strategy to strengthen the democratic forces among the opposition and to provide safe haven for these forces and for the displaced refugees. Why not? Why not carve out safe zones in strategic areas and defend these zones against the incursions of Assad’s military and paramilitary forces? Why not send UN aid workers to administer to the refugees? We must also insist that Assad take responsibility for the refugee problem. Why should other nations pay for his failure to govern? Send him a bill and start freezing his assets. Start procedures in the Hague International Court to brand entire region.
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