President Bashar al-Assad is shown on
a flag during a demonstration against the US Government in Damascus.
On July 17th of 2000, Bashar
al-Assad succeeded his father Hafez Assad as President of Syria, at the time there
appeared to be great promise of a more democratic society.
In his inaugural speech, al-Assad suggested he
would be a very different kind of leader than his father was. “I shall try my
very best to lead our country towards a future that fulfills the hopes and
legitimate ambitions of our people,” and for a while,
according to many critics, that promise was kept. His official website says he has built
free-trade zones, licensed additional private newspapers and private
universities, and has opposed government waste and corruption. Beyond these
assertions it’s known that he has also worked on social and economic reform.
Most of us living outside Syria probably don’t
realize that Bashar was not originally chosen by his father and former
president, Hafez, to play the role of President after his demise. Bashar’s older
brother Bassel was expected to succeed his father had it not been for his untimely
death in a car accident in January of 1994.
Because the elder Assad had died several years earlier,
on 10 June 2000, Bashar was appointed leader of the Ba’ath Party and the Army,
shortly there after he was elected president in an unopposed election. The government claimed the election was proof
positive of massive popular support (he received 97.2% of the votes), even
though his election required the Majlis al-Sha’ab (Syria’s Parliament) to
swiftly vote to lower the minimum age requirement for presidential candidates
from 40 to 34 (Assad’s age when he was elected). On 27 May 2007, Bashar was
approved for another seven-year term, as president, after they (the Parliament) received the official
results of the votes in a referendum, again without an opposition candidate –
this time he was said to have received 97.6% of the votes.
For a bit more than 13 years now, President
Bashar al-Assad has governed Syria. For 2½ of those 13 years he has
faced recurring calls from many statesmen from inside and outside Syria for his
resignation; there is little doubt that the on-going Civil War has brought
about this attitude.
When considering the regional unrest brought about
by the so called “Arab Spring”, coupled by the unrest that’s still daily news
events in places like Egypt and Libya, many members of the world community remain
inquisitive as to why recent events within Syria have resulted in such controversy
in other parts of the world.
Of recent date, al-Assad’s regime is said by
many Western governments and the Arab League of nations, to have used chemical
weapons against its own people. This accusation has prompted a lot of talk; not
only condemning the act but mostly promoting international military
intervention. This action by President al-Assad
may be the best evidence to date that the old cliché “absolute power corrupts
absolutely” still rings true. Some have
described Bashar as a master of deception and as being downright ruthless. Even though a father of 3, perhaps the best
evidence of both characteristics is evidenced by an apparent willingness to use
chemical weapons and the ease of which he denies the deed, whereby collateral damage
invariably includes the deaths of defenseless children.
Weapons that are known to poison and spread
disease have always provoked alarm and abhorrence in the mind of the public. The International
Committee of the Red Cross summed up the public horror at the use of such
weapons in its appeal back in February of 1918, describing them as “barbarous
inventions that can only be called criminal”. For centuries there have been taboos against
such weapons, but the use of poisonous gas in World War I led to the first
international agreement, known as the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which banned
suffocating, poisonous or other gases and bacteriological methods of waging warfare.
Despite the huge loss of life and
destructiveness during World War II, and all the known crimes committed against
humanity, the major combatants did not use chemical or biological weapons
against each other. So, it is generally believed that the 1925 Geneva Protocol established
a new and clear norm in international law.
(Right)
World
War I, Soldiers blinded by gas; lined up, hoping for
treatment outside a first-aid post near Bethune, France. ©
Imperial War Museum London / hist-00321
The Geneva Protocol has been observed in nearly all of
the hundreds of armed conflicts that have taken place since 1925. A handful of
well-known and high-profile violations have caused widespread international
condemnation such as those seen in Iraq by the actions of former president Saddam
Hussein.
The 1925 Protocol is considered a landmark in
international humanitarian law throughout the civilized world. Further legal
instruments have followed in the form of Conventions adopted, first in 1972 and yet again
in 1993 by prohibiting the development, production,
stockpiling and the transfer of these cruel, inhumane weapons.
Are you are among the few that believe; regardless
of what goes on within the territorial boarders of Syria, they are of no
concern to the rest of the world? Be assured
if for no other reason, such transgressions should be punished to prevent the
expansion and use of such a heartless weapons system.
In other words it does not take a lot of smarts to recognize that such
chemical weapons, etc. are 100% aggressive in nature. To make a bad thing worse, with today’s technology
in cruse missile systems, all of us are potential targets.
The question should be: Which weapon of many is
best suited for assuring the Syrian President (or anyone else who might be harboring
thoughts of using such atrocious weapons), that will result in the least amount of collateral
damage to the innocent, yet totally obliterating the target chosen. As everyone with access to CNN,
MSNBC, FOX NEWS, etc. learned during the first invasion of Iraq during the
latter days of March, 2003; the technology exists.
Someone should notify the current
Syrian President that he is expendable and there’s an international collation ready to ensure that his time among the living is limited at best. Ideally, with such tidings becoming known to
his potential associates, it would become rather difficult for President al-Assad
to conduct day to day business transactions, while simultaneously reducing the
risk of injury to the unsuspecting or the
innocent.
Perhaps the best place to start is the ‘Presidential
Palace’ in Damascus; here after all is where the President lives and prefers to
conduct business. The premises of the palace
covers about 510,000 square meters (5,500,000 sq. feet), including a private
presidential hospital; there is the added bonus of the Republican Guard
headquarters being located their too.
The main building covers 31,500 square meters
(340,000 square feet) – not a small target with today’s “surgical strike” capabilities.
Start here and the ‘Syrian Crisis’ will soon be another bad memory.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/28/world/meast/syria-assad-profile/index.html?iid=article_sidebar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/libya/index.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/09/20139118235327617.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassel_al-Assad
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/things-you-might-not-know-about-syrian-president-bashar-alassad/story-fni0fiyv-1226706414588
http://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/weapons/chemical-biological-weapons/overview-chemical-biological-weapons.htm
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