Assad said he did not deploy chemical weapons. Those who say he did had already established themselves as biased against Assad. Don’t you need to empirically establish that somebody did something, before you ask why they did it?
It makes perfect sense if you have read the history of the regime Assad and their behavior. He thought he could get away with it.
the only thing that is keeping that city safe…
What sour humor for the poor people in the suburbs that the Regime bombards with barrel bombs to terrorize them into submission…
It is the Regime that has destroyed the most of the cities for the love of God, it is the regime that has had the artilerry, the tanks, the heavy weapons, the aircraft bombing.
Keeping safe? It is to laugh.
so what he said that?
Why would anyone give any credit to the murderous liar?
Biased against Assad has not one thing to do with the evidence that renders the conspiracy excuses utterly ridiculous.
But perhaps your blindness has blinded to reading actual evidence…
The AP is reporting that the Pentagon is now investigating whether Russia participated in Syria gas attack.
Oh yeah, the US is really good at investigating that stuff. The world can’t wait for the verdict - perhaps Colin Powell will deliver the devastating news at a special UN presentation.
Better than the Americans than people repeating the Putin propaganda or worse, the propaganda of the murderous regime of the Assads.
That’s the nub of the problem for sure.
Assad has said, in his more lucid moments, that the alternative to him is pure chaos a la Libya or the worst days of post-invasion Iraq. He’s probably correct, but that doesn’t mean he ought to get the free pass he says that entitles him to.
Magically eliminating Assad himself but keeping the rest of the current government structure and people in charge won’t work either; all his inner circle are equally implicated in the barbarity and equally reviled by the populace.
Ultimately the people will control who and what is in charge of where. The problem is “the people” now includes a lot of foreigners and bandit groups and ideologues and warlords with the means to power and not a lot of ordinary citizens with civil power. So the result will not be a coherent polity; rather a violent clash of ever-shifting fiefdoms. Which will end when all sides but one are exhausted. A process that typically takes about 25 years.
QED.
It was the strategy of the Regime since the mutinies of the army against the orders to fire upon peaceful demonstrators, to make themselves the sole acceptable result.
It is also to be remembered that this regime knows well also the dynamic of the Lebanese civil war, it knows a game to play.
Finally for those making the excuses about the regime and the pretension there is some false flag, it is to note that the Regime in the past weeks was losing some ground in the area (not winning, but having an airfield under threat) and that there are the reports, of several occasions where they have used apparently the chemical weapons in recent weeks embolded by the American president, near the city of Palmyra, near the city of Hama.
The regime seems to have gotten away with those, and they as they have always the habit kept pushing.
And what is demonstrated, the falseness of your supposed conspiracy suggested? Did you find your special glasses for the come and go blindness effect to go see some evidence?
The evidences - the chemical stained bomb crater, the absurd idea of the local forces just happening to have the false flag ready for the magically foreknown bombing attack - and the pattern of the regime Assad are clear, the excuse making about it is shameful, disgusting.
But everyone involved in Syria is biased one way or the other. The US says they have radar tracks of the aircraft that delivered the ordinance. The only question is whether the Sarin came from stored weapons or from the Syrian Gov’t. Since no one believes anyone anymore, I don’t think there is any way to determine the truth to all sides satisfaction.
As for why Assad would do such a thing-because he can. He will pay no additional price for this attack. The regime has committed so many war crimes that if he loses the war he is going to be a) hiding in Iran/Russia or b) dead. Using chemical weapons again doesn’t change that. His overwhelming goal is to end the war. He knows that both sides are getting very tired, and ending the war is about the only promise he can make to keep people on his side. The chemical attack could bring the war’s end closer. I frankly don’t see any downside to Assad. He clearly has gotten away with the attack in the short term, and it looks like he will benefit in the long term. Russia for instance is promising to increase their military support of Assad as a result of the US actions. And I suspect it appeases his more hard line supporters. I suspect that there are generals in the regime who advocated these actions because they have the weapons and why not? If that is the case, Assad is stronger with his own generals. More important, it demoralizes the opposition. They have to worry about this happening again. The opposition sees that the regime didn’t pay any price for the attack. If the opposition can’t get any support after the regime uses chemical weapons on civilians, then they won’t be getting any help at all even from the new US president. Their future is worse now than before the attack.
Yes, indeed.
And as the reminder, there have been the credible reports of several occasions where they have used apparently the chemical weapons in recent weeks embolded by the American president, near the city of Palmyra, near the city of Hama.
The current administration in any case could not be said to be biased against the Regime Assad.
The body of the evidence for anyone not in the mode of the conspiracy thinking denialism is clear.
Because he got them for free from Saddam Hussein, of course.