Pressure is mounting for the US to become involved in the Syrian civil war. Advocates of intervention have all sorts of motives. Once of the most attractive talking points from the perspective of the interventionists is the Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons on its own people. This short and well focused essay addresses that allegation …. The author is one one of the most seasoned reporters now covering the Middle East.
MAY 20, 2013
Why the Claims of Sarin Gas Don't Add Up
Syria Has No Reason to Use Chemical Weapons
by PATRICK COCKBURN, Counterpunch
‘I am not afraid of anything except for God and poison gas,” said an Iraqi officer who had fought in the Iran-Iraq war. “It’s like a ghost. You have no defence against it.” Though not a target of poison gas as a member of the army using it, he knew what it did to its victims.
Poison gas is a terrifying weapon. People are still dying in Iran from the effects of ingesting it a quarter of a century ago. It is one of the few weapons to be banned with partial success between its first use on a mass scale in the First World War and again by Saddam Hussein with even greater intensity against Iranians and Kurds in the 1980s.
It is right, therefore, that the alleged attack by the Syrian armed forces using chemical weapons against Saraqeb, a rebel-held town south-west of Aleppo on 29 April, should be carefully investigated. Doctors told the BBC’s Ian Pannell that after an artillery bombardment they treated eight people with breathing problems, some of whom were vomiting and others who had constricted pupils.
