Could Syrian civil war lead to world war?

I’d like to point out things about the Syrian crisis that seem to receive little or no mention in the mainstream media. Things anyone inclined to praise or support U.S. President Donald Trump should take into account.

One is the possibility that the recent poison gas release in Syria that killed dozens was the result of a bomb set off by nobody knows who for sure exploding a stored supply of this gas.

Supporting this idea is my belief that a gas attack would have little or no value for Syrian President Bashar Assad, especially considering, as most agree, he is on the way to winning his civil war.

Another possibility is that anti-Assad rebels might have instigated the gas attack knowing Assad would be blamed. They are smart enough to know that this might draw Western powers into the Syrian civil war on their side.

As for U.S. expressions of certainty that Assad ordered the gas attack, does anyone need to be reminded of what we were told with utter conviction about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction?

In any case, as columnist Scott Taylor said last week in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, if Assad did ordered the gas attack, he is mad.

If it is generally decided that Assad is mad, this means that of the four countries now mainly involved in threatening world peace – the U.S., Syria, North Korea and Russia – at least three have leaders widely thought to be madmen.

It is ironic that the one who, perhaps more than any of the others, is thought of as the world’s evil-doer-in-chief, Vladimir Putin, would seem to be the sanest of the lot.

The willingness of various political leaders (including our prime minister) to support and maintain an alliance with a madman like Trump calls their judgment into question.

A newspaper cartoon I saw shows Trump and a banner reading: “R U nuts enough to believe I’m sane?” I know national leaders have politics to consider, but there comes a time when rationality takes priority.

A seemingly taboo topic in major media circles involves the fact that further Western military intervention in Syria could escalate into nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia. Between them these countries have about 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons.

Trump, along with some other political leaders, seems ready to lead the U.S. into another Middle East quagmire. Ex-U.S. national security adviser Colin Kahl was quoted as saying: ”Sinking into a Syrian quagmire would be bad enough. World War 3 would be far worse.”

What have shown up in the international media are declarations that Trump staged his attack on Syria to divert attention from the growing number of political problems he has at home. Paul Krugman of The New York Times, for one, takes this view.

What I find most astonishing about major media coverage of Trump’s reaction to the Syrian gas attack is that I have seen practically no mention of the hypocrisy involved in American condemnation of Assad for killing civilians.

Have there not been reports over the years that civilians in large numbers – including, we may be sure, “beautiful babies” – have been killed by U.S. or its coalition’s weapons in various parts of the Middle East?

Along with this, the history of deadly U.S. and other Western political and military interventions is long and global in scope.