The chemical weapons that the Assad regime has repeatedly used against Syrian civilians are not the real problem in the war-torn country, Foreign Policy magazine said in an article published on Wednesday. The magazine said that, chemical weapons, despite their reputation, are not especially as deadly or efficient at killing people as conventional weapons.
Paul D. Miller, author of the op-ed article, said that in 2012, President Barack Obama warned that Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that would “change [the] calculus” of U.S. policy toward Syria.
A year later, faced with evidence that Assad used sarin gas against his own people, Obama said: “The use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world is an affront to human dignity and a threat to the security of people everywhere.”
“President Donald Trump apparently agrees: He ordered a missile strike against the Shayrat air base in Syria in early April, in retaliation for another chemical attack,” Miller added.
“The Obama-Trump doctrine that the United States will enforce a global norm against the use of chemical weapons is strategically pointless and morally arbitrary. Strategically, it requires the United States to invest its time and resources policing a weapon this is not qualitatively different from conventional weapons.”
Miller stressed that “morally, it amounts to a declaration that the United States cares more about the murder weapon than the murder victim.” (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
