Above Photo:Â REUTERS/ Joshua Roberts
Two competing narratives on the same event and therefore grounds for an independent UN-led investigation in order to ascertain which one is accurate and which is false. Russia has called for such an investigation, as have the Iranians, yet in Washington those calls have been contemptuously dismissed, swept aside in service to a rush to judgement and, with it, a hail of tomahawk missiles.
It is a rush to judgement that invites the question: what are the Americans afraid of? Is this a repeat of the UN investigation into whether Saddam possessed WMD back in 2003, when Hans Blix and his investigation team were precipitately withdrawn from Iraq at the point at which it had become obvious they were about to confirm that Iraq did not have any WMD, thus destroying the then-Bush administration’s pretext for unleashing a war it had already decided was going to be unleashed no matter what?
In the absence of any such investigation concerning Idlib, here is what we do know beyond doubt:
1. The Syrians had no motive for carrying out this attack. It came at a point in the conflict when pro-government forces were enjoying the kind of momentum they have not enjoyed in five years. It also came just after the Trump administration had confirmed that regime change in Syria was no longer an objective, that its priority was defeating terrorism. With this in mind, for President Assad to authorize this attack — and given how close the alleged chemical weapons attack of 2013 came to precipitating military intervention then — this would conform to the actions of man who was intent on bringing about his government’s demise.
2. All the footage of the aftermath of the Idlib event has come from pro-opposition sources. While this does not automatically invalidate the footage’s authenticity or accuracy, it does require us to be careful not to blindly take it as read. No Western journalist or news crew would dare set foot in Idlib, or any other part of opposition-held territory in Syria for that matter. They know that as soon as they did they would be abducted and slaughtered.
3. In 2014, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that all declared stocks of chemical weapons held by the Syrian government had been destroyed, per the agreement brokered with the Syrians and the Americans by Russia in the wake of the attack on eastern Ghouta, just outside Damascus, in August 2013. The OPCW is an international organization whose work and convention are supported by Washington. The rationale that the Syrians had, in violation of the agreement, retained chemical weapons stocks, does not add up when we consider the damage it would do to its alliance with Russia, not to mention the dire consequences, should the fact it had held onto some, become known.
Thus far one of the most egregious aspects of this current crisis has been the extraordinary histrionics of Trump’s UN envoy, Nikki Haley, at the UN. At the emergency session of the security council, called after the alleged chemical weapons attack occurred, she got out of her chair and produced images of dead children, which she proceeded to brandish at her Russian and Syrian counterparts. As she did, the world’s collective memory was transported back in time to the very same locale fourteen years previously, when then US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, brandished a tiny vial as he indulged in one of the most shameful and dishonest speeches the UN has ever witnessed in its 70-year history.
Speaking for the countless victims of America’s brutal war on Iraq was Bolivia’s UN envoy, Sacha Llorenti. Himself brandishing the image of Powell at the UNSC on that infamous day, he reminded the US and the world of the lies that were told to justify the war on the Iraqi people. Mr. Llorenti said:
“We were told that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and this was the motivation for the invasion. After the invasion there were 1 million deaths and it launched a series of atrocities in that region. Could we talk about [the Islamic State] if that invasion had not taken place? Could we talk about the serious and horrendous attacks in various parts of the world if that illegal invasion had not taken place? I believe it is vital to remember what history teaches us.”
Never was a truer word spoken.