Isn’t it amazing that the world is appalled and gasps in horror when chemical weapons are used to kill a handful people but is pretty relaxed and watches on live TV when thousands are slaughtered using conventional weapons!!!
I am in no way denying or undermining the horrible-ness of chemical weapons though.
I think the differentiating factor is that it’s at least possible to attempt to target only military targets with most convential weapons now. Granted, not everybody has the super high-tech stuff that the US has, but even “dumb” bombs can be pretty well placed by someone with skill. When civilians are killed, it’s usually viewed as unintentional. In contrast, use of chemical weapons pretty much says you either don’t care who is killed or you actually want to kill civilians. I realize that dead is dead, but people are more forgiving of “accidents”.
No, I don’t find it particularly amazing. There’s a big difference between soldiers fighting each other and indiscriminate killing. Reaction would have been similar if there was footage of soldiers mowing down hundreds of kids with machine guns. Almost the same anyway. Chemical weapons are extra creepy. Footage of all those kids wrapped in cloth…looks like they’re just sleeping.
The cynic in me thinks that the west’s outrage might have to do with their lost opportunity in terms of forgone sales.
Imagine if all rogues, despot, rebels etc. started using unconventional weaponry, who would buy arms from the US, the UK, France et al.
But I sincerely hope I am wrong there.
Governments can be outraged all they want, but that doesn’t stay in the media for long. To gain real traction, the public has to be outraged and they don’t really care about the lost weapons sales.
I don’t believe anyone is truly outraged by this.
Didn’t this ban on chemical weapons come out of WWI? Back then we were all into fighting wars in sporting “manly” ways with guns, mortars, and what not. The powers at be decided gas was not sporting so they banned it.
Since then we’ve innovated and I tend to agree all the righteousness over chemical weapons is a bit silly. I’d rather take my chances against gas over carpet bombing, napalm, etc. Gas, if you have atropine and proper equipment isn’t that big a deal.
Seems like Obama is going to do a drive by . Does he still get to keep his Pulitzer? And would Putin still be a BSD after watching his close ally get knock off?
I really wish the US would just stay out of this. Have nothing been learned from getting into other people’s conflicts for years? Unfortunately the US govt is really in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. People expect the US to be the police of the world, but then get annoyed when they do step in.
^Word.
Most Americans agree with you. Unfortunately our fearless leader made some remarks he’s now really regretting. If we don’t do something, he’ll be seen as spineless and lose any credibility he had in the Middle East.
Overheard the office secretary making morning talk with someone the other day… “Can you believe all the innocent people that were killed in Syria from the chemical weapon? I can’t believe Obama isn’t doing about it. He is like the worst president ever!!!” The same woman goes ape shit crazy when someone tries to defend the war on terror/iraq/afghanistan on humanitarian grounds and calls Bush irresponsible for going to war. Stupid people are stupid #SMH
Word.
We should return to the good old pre-WW2 days. The days of “Leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone. Fck with me, and I will kill you. I will kill your mother, your father, your brothers and sisters, your kids, and all of your friends. Then I will burn your house down and kill your family pets.”
Again–whether this is good or bad–can you imagine the public and media backlash if W was to do this? I bet the media largely gives Obama a pass.
He kills their kids. He kills their wives. He kills their parents and their parents’ friends. He burns down the houses they live in, the stores they work in. He kills people that owe them money. And like that, he’s gone. Underground. Nobody’s ever seen him since. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night.
KAISER SOZE!
The more I learn about the “Rebels” the more in favor I am of the Assad regime and them using gas.
^ Don’t speak too loud…there must be a bad guy and good guy…no grey area because it’s too complicated for the common man to understand.
The Obama adminstration is in a bit of a quandry. It’s very possible that some of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons were smuggled in from Iraq in 2003, which would be very embarrassing to the adminstration because then Senator Obama was very much against the Iraq invasion.
I disagree. Chemical weapons proliferating is a risk to the US and to our allies. So wether we think it is justified or not, this has escalated beyong a Syrian civil war. Imagine Sarin gas on an NYC subway.
There is a reason why these gases were outlawed by international treaty (to which Syrian is not a party) and daisy cutter bombs are ok. Chemical weapons exert an element of cruelty to the horror that is war.