Wednesday, August 28, 2013

'We are ready to go'

'What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable."--Secretary of State Kerry.
Daily Mail

The above quote is really quite hypocritical. The US supported and turned its back on the use of chemical weapons by our then ally Saddam Hussein during Iraq's war with Iran. The statement by Secretary Kerry also reminds one of the "indiscriminate slaughter of civilians" when then President Clinton authorized a cruise missile attack of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan in retaliation for attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The cruise missile attack in Sudan killed one employee and wounded 11 civilians. Contrary to what the Clinton Administration believed, the factory produced anti-malarial medicine. The factory's destruction cost thousands of Sudanese deaths due to the lack of medicine.

The use of cruise missile attacks in Syria runs the very real risk of unintended civilian casualties either by the direct action of the explosions or the secondary effects of caused by loss of infrastructure. In either way, the Syrian people are going to suffer more.



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