8. The failure of the international system to prevail will eventually affect us all
What has happened in Syria has not stayed there. An internal conflict featuring war crimes and crimes against humanity has created a humanitarian abomination and geopolitical catastrophe spilling into Syria’s neighbourhood and far beyond. The international system has been powerless to stop the slaughter or its consequences.
How many UN Security Council resolutions have demanded ceasefires, an end to the targeting of civilians, releasing detainees and lifting sieges? All have been ignored by the regime of Bashar Al Assad. Others have been vetoed by Russia and China.
How many reports have been issued by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry detailing war crimes inflicted on civilians in Syria, mainly by the country’s “government”? How many international NGOs have begged the Security Council to do its duty and protect civilians? How often have senior UN officials condemned the mass homicidal actions of a member state?
How many UN special envoys have tried desperately, with no useful external support, to tamp down the slaughter and get the parties to negotiate? When has the Assad regime ever complied?
How many western politicians, eager to pose as heroic opponents of government mass murder, have proclaimed “Never Again”? How many have lifted a finger to protect Syrian children and their parents from a murderous government?
Some say that the rulesbased, international order is under attack. Some heap blame on the current American president. But who launched punitive military strikes after the Assad regime unleashed a sarin nerve agent assault on defenceless civilians? (Hint: it was not a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.)
President Barack Obama consistently averted his gaze from the slaughter in Syria. He feared he might complicate the quest for a nuclear deal with one of the accessories. The price for achieving a presumptive “legacy” jewel in the crown was cynically and gratuitously exacted of Syrians. But Iran wanted the deal. It did not have to be appeased with the lives of Syrians.
Russia and Iran seek to restore Al Assad in all of Syria. They support fully the regime’s strategy of state terror. They take part in it. They hope to compel western-financed reconstruction through demographic blackmail. They appreciate their client’s illegitimacy. They know that Assad Syria is a ruined Syria: a place that will haemorrhage humanity and incubate extremism. They hope to clot the bleeding by forcing a fearful Europe to fix what they and their client have broken.
Without American leadership, there is no effective response to what Russia, the regime and Iran are doing. Russia will permanently neutralise the Security Council. European politicos will wring their hands, fearing another tsunami of frightened refugees. Al Assad will continue to do his worst with Iranian-led mercenaries supplementing his broken army. But the American trumpet is uncertain.
By making Al Assad’s use of highly toxic chemical weapons the sole trigger for protective strikes against regime targets, the US unintentionally gives him a green light to kill as he wishes with everything else at his disposal. And the man who considers Syria to be his family farm has taken full advantage. Eastern Ghouta is Syria’s Guernica.
American officials condemn mass homicide in Syria and call on the international community to do something. Yet they do so knowing one central truth: if the US does not end the free ride for civilian slaughter in Syria, no one else will. Other dictators around the world watch with great interest.
The geopolitical consequences of mass murder in Syria cannot be contained at the scene of the crime. Without American leadership, the international system inevitably enables bad behaviour and ensures catastrophic results.