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Imminent Attack On Assad Feels Like Déjà Vu
Obama in spring backed down after chemical attack prompted threats
WND
NEW YORK – The Obama administration current claim that the Assad regime in Syria is the culprit in chemical gas attacks that may demand a U.S. military response has the feeling of déjà vu.
Last spring, President Obama made similar threats, only to back down from U.S. military action against the Assad regime after credible evidence produced by international authorities indicated the rebel forces attacking the Assad regime were responsible.
In a March 21 televised address to the people of Israel during his visit to the country, Obama pressed his claim that Assad was using poisonous chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in the war against rebel forces.
Obama said:
That’s why every country that values justice should call Hezbollah what it truly is – a terrorist organization. (Applause.) Because the world cannot tolerate an organization that murders innocent civilians, stockpiles rockets to shoot at cities, and supports the massacre of men and women and children in Syria right now. (Applause.)
The fact that Hezbollah’s ally – the Assad regime – has stockpiles of chemical weapons only heightens the urgency. We will continue to cooperate closely to guard against that danger. I’ve made it clear to Bashar al-Assad and all who follow his orders: We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people, or the transfer of those weapons to terrorists. The world is watching; we will hold you accountable. (Applause.)
The Syrian people have the right to be freed from the grip of a dictator who would rather kill his own people than relinquish power. (Applause.) Assad must go so that Syria’s future can begin. Because true stability in Syria depends upon establishing a government that is responsible to its people – one that protects all communities within its borders, while making peace with countries beyond them.
Clearly, Obama had taken a position against the Assad regime. The question remained whether his administration’s charge that Assad carried out poison gas attacks could stand the test of international scrutiny.
Then, as now, Obama had the support of Britain and France in attacking the Assad regime over the use of poison gas.
Le Monde in Paris reported May 27 that two reporters who spent two months clandestinely in the Damascus area alongside Syrian rebels witnessed chemical gas attacks launched by the Assad regime.
“In the tangled web of the Jobar front, where enemy lines are so close that the fighters exchange insults as often as they kill each other, gas attacks occurred on a regular basis in April,” Le Monde reported.
“The gas was not diffused over a broad swath of territory but used occasionally in specific locations by government forces to attack the areas of toughest fighting with the encroaching opposition rebels. This sector is the place where Free Syrian Army groups have penetrated most deeply into Damascus. A merciless war is being waged here.”
Then, as now, Assad regime officials pushed back, denying Syrian government forces had used chemical weapons against the rebels, while demanding the White House and Britain produce evidence.
In May, Israel, agreeing with the U.S., Britain and France that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons, launched a series of limited missile and warplane strikes on Syria, supposedly aimed at preventing the transfer of Iranian-made missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Reposted with permission.
