http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
Medecins Sans Frontieres says it treated about 3,600 patients with 'neurotoxic symptoms' in Syria, of whom 355 died
No government can be allowed to get away this.
I was against direct Western intervention in Syria until this week. This week forces loyal Bashar Assad launched the worst act of chemical warfare in at least 25 years, on the opposition-friendly neighborhood of East Ghouta outside Damascus. The death toll ranges as high as 1,800 and may yet go higher. Women, children suffocated on their own vomit and died face down in the streets. Doctors treating patients contracted the chemicals themselves and some have died.
The last time an atrocity on this scale happened, when Saddam Hussein gassed Halabja in the name of defeating "radical Islamists"...the Reagan administration ignored it, swept it under the rug, even tried to pawn off blame on Iran. Similar voices today are ignorantly claiming that the rebels both have the capability to disperse nerve agent in the air over a wide area, and would use said weapons on their own supporters. I'll have none of that. Only one entity in Syria has this capability, and that is the regime of Bashar al Assad.
I was completely against the 2003 Iraq War. But I absolutely supported the No-Fly Zones enforced over Iraq during the decade after Desert Storm, which effectively protected the Kurds from Saddam's Army.
We can cripple Assad's ability to launch airstrikes and Scud attacks with little risk to either civilians or our own forces. I don't pretend to know what the endgame is to solving this conflict...but thats no excuse to not try.
10:16 AM PT: Update: Here's the full Press Release from Doctors WIthout Borders
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/...