Warnings, ultimatums, red lines, they set the stage for confrontation. On the other hand, the issues at hand are of inestimable importance. Weapons of mass destruction can make conventional warfare obsolete if they are permitted to be utilized in the heat of war. Weapons of mass destruction have the potential to make humankind obsolete, for that matter.A Global Holocaust
"President Obama hasn't been elected by the American people in order to be pleasant to Russia. And your humble servant hasn't been elected by the people of Russia to be pleasant to someone either. We work, we argue about some issues. We are human. Sometimes one of us gets vexed. But I would like to repeat once again that global mutual interests form a good basis for finding a joint solution to our problems."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Novo-Ogaryovo, Russia
"I didn't set a red line; the world set a red line. My credibility is not on the line. The international community's credibility is on the line. And America and Congress's credibility is on the line because we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important. Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty.
"We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation."
American President Barack Obama, Washington, United States of America
Which is a way of pointing out how utterly indefensible their use is. Their use can be defended by psychotic religious maniacs who believe that with their use they advance the long-awaited end of days and herald in a time of perfection, of heaven on Earth, with the kindly visage of a God smiling benevolently upon all who are worthy of his benediction and welcome.
It's often enough been said that humankind often requires simple little lessons in civility, in humanity. Some rehearsals in fact have occurred in some of the great cities of the world. Take New York City as an example, where it was bruited about that a broken window left unattended could eventually result in a broken city. Fix that window and establish a norm, that destructive acts even on a low level mount to become catastrophic acts of destruction.
In Bashar al-Assad's Syria the use of chemical gas as a silent life-destroyer is no more lethal than a powerful bomb or series of bombs, but what's to stop totalitarian brutish governments or well organized terrorist groups from using bacterial warfare to even greater effect, if they can manage that tricky manipulation leading to mass barbarity? And if that milestone is accomplished, why not then the re-utilization of the supreme weapon of mass destruction?
"Some have tried to suggest that the debate we're having today is about President Obama's red line. I could not more forcefully state that is just plain and simply wrong. This debate is about the world's red line. It's about humanity's red line. And it's a red line that anyone with a conscience ought to draw.""From our viewpoint, it seems absolutely absurd that the armed forces -- the regular armed forces, which are on the offensive today and in some areas have encircled the so-called rebels and are finishing them off -- that in these conditions they would start using forbidden chemical weapons while realizing quite well that it could serve as a pretext for applying sanctions against them including the use of force", averred Mr. Putin.
American Secretary of State John Kerry
As logic goes it's superficial enough to overlook the larger truth that when a tyrant is determined to achieve an end result, the means by which he pursues it is not necessarily always -- or ever -- palatable, nor readily explicable, other than that the goal must be achieved by any means. In this particular instance, shifting about in the shadows of events behind Syria is its primary mentor, Iran, whose nuclear technology fixation aligned with ballistic missile technology perfection spells finality.
Iran is understandably curious to see the outcome of the current situation. And from it, the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to take its lesson. One mounted by a country which has itself experimented in dropping nuclear devices in the world's only such events in Japan, and which went backward, in a sense, also using chemical agents in Vietnam proving it is never too late to develop a conscience.
"If there is evidence that chemical weapons have been used, and used specifically by the regular army, this evidence should be submitted to the UN Security Council", Mr. Putin smugly recommended. Where, needless to say, the game of 'ring-around-a-posy' can once again proceed, in the very chamber whose existence is predicated on the need to forestall any future catastrophic events like a global Holocaust.
Labels: Conflict, G20, Russia, Syria, United Nations, United States
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, September 07, 2013
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