SHAFAQNA – These horrific images of human suffering are the kind that start wars. The US and its allies are adamant to blame Assad for it. But why would he go and shoot himself in the foot like this? Especially days after the US declared they were no longer set on removing him from power. A sarin gas attack on a Damascus suburb back in 2013 almost triggered an international intervention. Assad surrendered his entire chemical and biological arsenal to avoid it. Syria claims their airstrikes hit a rebel chemical weapons facility, releasing the gas. Then there’s also this: In 2013, the Turkish press reported that police had caught al-Qaeda-affiliates on the Syrian border with sarin and / or the chemicals needed to produce it. The same group is known to have stolen around 200 tons of chlorine gas from a government chemical plant in Aleppo back in 2012. The UN even confirmed in 2014 that two cylinders seized from the opposition by the Syrian Army contained sarin. Some experts claim the rebels don’t have the capabilities to make chemical weapons themselves, but sarin has been developed and used by terrorists in the past. In the mid 90s, a Japanese cult produced the nerve agent themselves in a makeshift factory and used it to kill over 20 people on the Tokyo subway. With world leaders rushing to escalate the war in Syria again, why aren’t we taking time to fully investigate this tragedy?
Assad may be a lot of things, but he’s not stupid
