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Heartbreaking, no one deserves to suffer like the children of Syria

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DailyBiteApr 05, 2017 | 13:39

Heartbreaking, no one deserves to suffer like the children of Syria

Truth is a casualty in the Syrian war, now in its sixth year, but the far bigger casualty is that of humanity. As images of children, barely four or five, either lying dead, or trying hard to breathe, badly bruised and mouth open, eyes with a vacant, hopeless stare, dare us to look at them, the endlessness and the horrific intensity of the Syrian nightmare continues to jolt the world.

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A suspected chemical gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province of northwestern Syria has killed at least 58 civilians, including many children, while leaving the rest in stages of acute sickness, pulmonary dysfunction, breathlessness, nausea, vomiting, fainting and foaming at the mouth.

(Warning: Graphic images)

It is likely that the casualty would go up in the days to come, as those not yet dead battle for their lives in makeshift hospitals which too are bombarded on a regular basis. Al Jazeera has already put the toll at 72, including 11 children, citing the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which runs several hospitals, all ritually targeted, in the area. SAMS says over 550 people were injured. Local health workers say the toll could go up to 100.

Reports suggest an organo-phosphate compounds agent as the cause of the attack, a category of toxic gases, which includes sarin.

(Warning: Graphic images)

There have been accusations against the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad for having carried out the chemical gas attack. In 2013, at least 1,400 people were killed in a sarin gas attack in Ghouta district of Damascus, capital of Syria, once again pinned on Assad regime, and his brutal stubbornness to stick to power despite the escalating cost of war.

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Last year, we saw the grim battle for Aleppo, as the rebels and Assad's forces fight a war to the finish, showering death from every quarter on the denizens of Syria's second biggest and oldest city.

The destruction of Aleppo right before our eyes was tweeted and mired in a Roshomon-like maze of facts and fabrication, in which rival propagandists for the US-backed rebels and the Russia-backed government forces obscured the truth from us all.

The only truth that remained was the immense, unfathomable suffering of the children, women, men and animals of Aleppo, with pictures of napalmed kids, shell-shocked and inconsolable, slapped our collective conscience (or, the lack of it) hard on its inert face.

This time, the sense of déjà vu is acute as Assad's forces have carried out chemical attacks before, and might continue to strike with impunity. With the United Nations investigating the potential war crimes, it must be noted that the White House had just agreed to prioritise fighting ISIS over toppling Bashar al-Assad in Syria, in accordance with President Donald Trump's extreme proclivity towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and his own geopolitical interests.

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But Russia formally entered the Syrian war only in September 2015, after US-backed rebels were creating havoc in the country in the name of liberation.

It must be noted that the Syrian military has denied the latest attack, as have the Russians, but the US, which again is forked with the White House taking a radically different approach to the traditional security and intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA, NSA etc, has reluctantly blamed Assad for the attack.

According to the CNN, Trump has issued the following statement about the latest gas attack in Syria:

"Today's chemical attack in Syria against innocent people, including women and children, is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world."

But Trump also blamed the Obama administration's "weakness and irresolution". He said: "President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a 'red line' against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing."

It must be noted that Donald Trump has been against US intervention in Syria, warning the Obama administration to not attack Bashar al-Assad's regime, even though he's now blaming his predecessor for not doing enough.

This, even as Trump-sanctioned drone strikes in Iraq and Yemen continue to create bloodshed and deaths at an unprecedented rate. Over 200 people died in Mosul in a US airstrike, and Trump's first official order to carry out strikes in Yemen, along with US ally Saudi Arabia, killed a US Navy Seal and led to a massive death toll of innocent Yemenis.

The heartbreaking images continue to circulate nevertheless and become a mere trope in the global discourse on Syria. Desperate survivors and shell-shocked children, when not dead, battle the grave injuries minus sustained medical care as not just the medics operating in the war zone are constantly targeted, so are the hospitals, blocking supplies and medicines.

The latest attack, which analysts say has all the "hallmarks of a regime attack", and is probably a sarin gas attack, is in grave contravention of UN resolution that outlaws use of chemical weapons on human rights ground.

Even though Assad had agreed to eliminate his chemical weapons stock, he hasn't done that. In fact, to the contrary, Assad has carried out chlorine gas attack on civilians in Aleppo, exactly as the ISIS carried out sulphur mustard gas attacks on residents of Syria.

The war in Syria refuses to end as the two sides, emboldened by US and Russian backing on either end, carry out a battle that has become a deathly spiral of bloodshed and loss of human lives, environmental catastrophe, plunging a country into the depths of humanitarian crisis. With the US now on backfoot, and the rebels scrounging for international military aid, is this an emboldened Assad's regime's victory splash?

If it is, this is an extremely disgusting and morally reprehensible way to demonstrate a show of strength. But Syria is maze of conflicting vested interests, and there is no one party responsible for the mayhem in installments.

Syria is the Holocaust of our times, and we are allowing it to take place despite the searing but ineffectual guilt.

Last updated: April 05, 2017 | 13:39
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