US Will Act Against ‘Monster’ Assad With or Without UN ‒ Haley

USA - Sucked-in Again?

United States envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley addresses the Security Council, April 9, 2018. © Brendan McDermid / Reuters

The US will act against the Syrian government with or without a UN blessing, US envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council, blaming Russian “obstructionism” for allowing the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria and beyond.

“We are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. We are beyond appeals to conscience. We have reached the moment when the world must see justice done,” Haley declared to the Security Council on Monday, accusing Russia of backing the “monster” [Bashar] Assad, who was murdering children with chemical weapons.

“The Russian regime, whose hands are all covered with the blood of Syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims. We’ve tried that before,” Haley said, adding that “no civilized government would have anything to do with Assad’s murderous regime.”

Moscow has challenged claims, made by the Western-backed NGO ‘White Helmets’ and Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) militants, that the Syrian government conducted a chemical attack against civilians in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia called it “fake news,” noting that no traces of the alleged attack were found in the area after Syrian troops liberated it from the militants.

Haley, however, spoke of the attack as if it and the Syrian government’s culpability were proven facts. If the UN refused to follow Washington’s lead and intervene in Syria due to “Russia’s obstructionism,” Haley said, the US will go it alone.

“History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond​​​,” she said.

Nobody has vested you with the power to act 

like the world’s policeman, or to act 

like the prosecutor, judge, and executioner 

Earlier in the meeting, Nebenzia had warned the US and its allies of the possible “grave consequences” of unauthorized military action against Syria, where Russian troops have been legally deployed at the invitation of the country’s internationally recognized government.

“What [the] military misadventures of the West bring about is well known, as shown by the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. Nobody has vested you with the power to act like the world’s policeman, or to act like the prosecutor, judge, and executioner either,” he said.

The US cited humanitarian concerns to launch NATO attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Libya in 2011. The latter began as the UN mandate to establish a no-fly zone and, within days, turned into a “regime change” operation. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq without UN authority, claiming the threat of Iraqi nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No such weapons were ever found.

It is so blatantly obvious that every time Trump starts musing about pulling out of Syria, there is a chemical attack on civilians. 

Analysis of the 2013 attack in Ghouta revealed that it was not of the same chemical composition as that used by Syria at the time. 

No-one has investigated the Khan Sheikoun attack at ground level and taken samples for themselves. All samples were taken from NGOs like the White Helmets which are decidedly anti-Assad. Those samples could never have been verified as genuine. Will anyone from the OPCW actually enter Douma and take samples? We have documented White Helmets complicity in producing fake news in Syria.

Who benefits from the use of chemical weapons in Syria? Certainly not Assad! Only those who do not want the USA to pull out; that would be any of the rebel groups and Saudi Arabia. But the USA has no business in Syria - ISIS is routed and they should depart and stop using false flag excuses to remain. 

Without proof of complicity by Assad, there is no moral imperative to attack, just because you can. In fact, the moral imperative is to wait for proof and to do everything possible to verify the findings. Otherwise, you are being played for fools.