{"id":357415,"date":"2018-04-19T03:38:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T02:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/there-was-nothing-humanitarian-about-our-strikes-on-syria\/"},"modified":"2018-04-19T03:38:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T02:38:07","slug":"there-was-nothing-humanitarian-about-our-strikes-on-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/there-was-nothing-humanitarian-about-our-strikes-on-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"There Was Nothing Humanitarian About Our Strikes on Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just after midnight on April 14, the U.S. and its allies bombed three Syrian regime targets. The reason, they said, was to punish Syria\u2019s alleged use of chemical weapons in the town of Douma.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, the Syrian regime\u2019s brutality has been well documented. Maybe the allegations are true. But there\u2019s a lot about this that\u2019s simply fishy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only days before the strikes, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis admitted that the U.S. was \u201cstill assessing\u201d whether chemical weapons were used. Veteran journalist Robert Fisk has since spoken to local doctors there who <\/span>cast doubt<\/span> <\/a>on the claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been no independent international investigation. In fact, the U.S. started bombing <\/span>the day before<\/span><\/i> <\/a>international investigators were slated to arrive in Douma. <\/span><\/p>\n

President Trump, of all people, insists there was a humanitarian imperative to skip the fact-finding. <\/span>“This is about humanity,\u201d he said. But if we look at his response to other regional catastrophes, that doesn\u2019t even begin to add up.<\/span><\/p>\n

For one thing, <\/span>NPR reports<\/span><\/a>, Trump\u2019s all-out war on refugees, especially Muslim ones, has meant that just 11 \u2014 <\/span>eleven <\/span><\/i>\u2014 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the U.S. this year. We fired <\/span>about 10 times<\/span><\/a> that many missiles the night of the 14th alone. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ten missiles for every refugee doesn\u2019t strike me as terribly humanitarian. Especially when, as <\/span>AirWars.org<\/span><\/a> reports, U.S. coalition strikes have killed a minimum of 6,200 civilians between Syria and Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"syria-bombing-missile-strikes\"<\/p>\n

U.S. bombs explode over Syria, 2014 (Shutterstock)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And just look at what U.S. allies are doing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Around the same time as the fighting in Douma, Israeli soldiers were firing on nonviolent Palestinian protesters in Gaza. They <\/span>killed at least 17 and injured over 1,000<\/span><\/a> in what Human Rights Watch calls a \u201c<\/span>calculated<\/span><\/a>\u201d assault on civilians.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was dropping more bombs on Yemen. The Saudi-led war and blockade there have killed <\/span>perhaps tens of thousands<\/span><\/a> and put millions more at risk of starvation and disease. The UN calls Yemen the <\/span>worst humanitarian crisis in the world<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Far from running to the ramparts, the U.S. has abetted these crimes at every stage. After the Gaza killings, the Trump administration <\/span>vetoed a UN resolution<\/span><\/a> affirming Palestinians\u2019 \u201cright to peaceful protest\u201d and urging an investigation. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Yemen, the U.S. is actually refueling the Saudi planes dropping the bombs. And American <\/span>moguls, celebrities, and politicians<\/span><\/a> \u2014 including Trump \u2014 lined up to celebrate the war\u2019s architect, Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman, throughout his tour of the U.S. this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our strikes on Syria, which ran completely afoul of both U.S. and international law, aren\u2019t about helping people. They won\u2019t end the war, and they may not even stop future chemical attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s more like Trump\u2019s putting on a big show. Like he had to do it just because <\/span>he tweeted he would<\/span><\/a>. \u201c<\/span>These strikes are like when a fistfight breaks out on the reality show Big Brother,\u201d <\/span>writes regional expert Juan Cole<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Big Brother or Celebrity Apprentice, innocent people will die as a result. In addition to killing more Syrians, escalating now could put the U.S. into direct conflict with Russia \u2014 Syria\u2019s nuclear-armed ally. All for an ineffectual response to an unconfirmed attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder some senators are finally discussing <\/span>reining in<\/span><\/a> the president\u2019s war-making authority. I hope they cut it down to nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post There Was Nothing Humanitarian About Our Strikes on Syria<\/a> appeared first on OtherWords<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted from Other Words<\/a> by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just after midnight on April 14, the U.S. and its allies bombed three Syrian regime targets. The reason, they said, was to punish Syria\u2019s alleged use of chemical weapons in the town of Douma. Now, the Syrian regime\u2019s brutality has been well documented. Maybe the allegations are true. But there\u2019s a lot about this that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2523,"featured_media":357416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-357415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}