Peace-Mongering

"The aim of the attacks seemed to be essentially tactical at this stage -- an attempt to destabilize rebel units in areas where government soldiers have been unable to dislodge them, and at the same time a test. If Syrian army forces could dare to use chemical weapons in their own capital without setting off a serious international reaction, would that not be an invitation to pursue the experiment a bit further?"
French journalist Jean-Philippe Remy, Le Monde

"No odour, no smoke, not even a whistle to indicate the release of a toxic gas. And then the symptoms appear. The men cough violently. Their eyes burn, their pupils shrink, their vision blurs. Soon they experience difficulty breathing, sometimes in the extreme; they begin to vomit or lose consciousness. The fighters worst affected need to be evacuated before they suffocate", wrote Mr. Remy, rather authoritatively, having been on the scene, embedded with rebel groups for the past several months.

That is, he and his colleague, Laurent van der Stockt, also from Le Monde, as witnesses to a series of attacks by the regime against their opponents, with chemical weapons. No doubt this testimony added hugely to the final decision by the European Union to lift the arms embargo that kept munitions deliveries from the Syrian rebel forces through their auspices. Britain and France did a lot of arm-twisting. Austria appeared to be the most outspoken opponent of providing arms to the rebels.

But they're now all on board. British Foreign Secretary William Hague calls the decision a "very strong message from Europe to the Assad regime". Presumably that their game has been called, that despite innocent denials of ever giving thought to attacking their own people with chemical agents, this is precisely what the Alawite regime has been busy doing over the past three months. A series of discrete chemical attacks whose results have been previously documented and now again, by an impeccable source.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Hague emphasized that Britain had "no immediate plans to send arms to Syria. It gives us flexibility to respond int he future if the situation continues to deteriorate". On the other hand, the rebels have received regular arms deliveries courtesy of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Their delivery route might have been impeded by the recent intervention of Hezbollah in attempting to secure a key position, but where there is a need, the way will be found.

Predictably enough, Russia has slammed the EU for this decision. Insisting that by so doing the European Union is endangering the potential for seeking an end to the two-year civil war that has taken upwards of 100,000 lives and left millions to flee in panic for their lives as internal and external refugees. Russia's decision to provide state-of-the-art anti-missile technology, among other key munitions to Syria maintains the peace, of course.

The fiction that peace can be attained through a conference seeking a resolution between the Syrian Opposition and the Alawite regime sponsored by Russia and the United States will continue. Even while Russia adamantly makes good on its promise to support Syria, and insists that Iran also must be invited to become part of the 'peace-making' endeavour, and U.S. Senator John McCain, willing to arm the rebels, has scheduled a meeting with them.