Assad getting away with genocide in Syria

Imagine innocent Syrians in east Ghouta scurrying for cover in their bid to save themselves from artillery fire and bombing raids ordered by the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. Food and medical supplies are scarce in this enclave near Damascus. There’s fear from the air, on the ground, and even below the earth, as they rush to bury rotting bodies of their loved ones. According to reports, 100 people have died in just a single day of raids. They can’t run, they can’t hide. An outright victory has eluded President Assad despite help from friends like Russia and Iran who have managed to push out Daesh and Al Qaeda from their strongholds. Now that he is in control of most of Syria, the president is making those holding out pay a heavy price as he plays with fire and gas. The people of Ghouta are not just weary of war, they are sick to the point of death. Their situation, in fact, is worse than death, like the day of judgement, as one aid worker described it.

There is ‘hysterical bombing’ and people are dying. And yet we remain unmoved. There’s nothing left to be saved when the body, soul and dignity are lost. Even if flesh and bone are salvaged, the spirit will devour it. And the way the conflict in Syria is going Assad is not done yet. He has turned terrorist, judge, jury and executioner and is savouring the experience. How could such evil come to pass? What’s worse is the devil that beguiles us is making us look the other way when a tragedy of such scale is unfolding before our very eyes. The United States lost the will to fight for justice when the Obama administration failed the Syrians as Assad choked them to death with sarin. Russia entered the war on Assad’s side and Putin’s planes rained fury on them, while Iranian forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah scavenged on their misery. The axis of evil won, but pockets of resistance to Assad remain, like in Ghouta. Syria has now slipped into a state of mindless war, endless, eternal war, and the world’s silence is only emboldening a madman who is getting away with mass murder.