In the early morning hours Wednesday morning (local time in Syria), one year and a few hours after President Obama made his 'red line' statements at a news conference in the White House and two days after a team of UN chemical weapons experts arrived in Damascus to investigate three locations in Syria where chemical weapons may have been used in the past year, videos and reports began to appear claiming that hundreds of people had been killed by or were suffering from the effects of chemical weapons attacks in several locations a few km east of Damascus.
These areas are under the control of rebel forces, primarily al-Nusrah, and Syrian government forces have been trying to retake these and other rebel controlled areas east of Damascus for several months and have retaken control of significant areas.
The day before the reported chemical weapon attacks, Syrian government forces launched a major offensive in these areas, and this offensive was continuing at that time.
Early Wednesday morning the Syrian opposition and rebel media machines, along with their supporters, immediately went into overdrive posting and reposting dozens of videos all over the internet, accompanied by instantaneous and automatic accusations that Syrian government forces had launched these attacks.
Various claims put the number of deaths at between 200 and 1,400.
The inevitable storm of outrage then began right on cue.
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The Syrian government has denied that its forces launched any chemical weapons attacks, and international reaction has varied.
The Turkish government is completely and unquestioningly backing the Syrian opposition's position.
The US and European governments have condemned the attacks and called for them to be investigated, but have been hesitant, to varying degrees, to point fingers.
The Russian government has backed the Syrian government's position and put forward reports indicating that al-Nusrah may be responsible for the attacks.
It seems that the days when every opposition and rebel allegation that Syrian government forces had committed a horrific act was immediately and unquestioningly accepted have past, and many have begun to accept that it is just as possible that armed radical Islamic groups in Syria can and do commit horrific acts.
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It would be easier to believe that the media coverage, wailing, and outrage about the deaths on Wednesday east of Damascus were genuine if even a fraction of this had been seen about the civilian deaths caused by the al-Nusrah (and other radical Islamic groups) attacks on Kurdish areas in northern Syria during the past two months, and these attacks are continuing even today.
The number of civilian deaths from these attacks is now reported to be well over 500, with hundreds more reported to have been kidnapped, and more than 30,000 people have had to flee their homes.
Perhaps the lack of coverage and reaction is understandable.
These deaths and this suffering don't fit the simplistic and convenient narrative.
And after all, they aren't being peddled on youtube.