The first use of poison gas in war occurred on April 22, 1915 and the one hundredth anniversary of that grim event was widely noted and commented upon. Including here.
Now, as Anne Barnard and Somini Sengrupta of the New York Times report, the Syrian strongman, Assad, continues to gas his enemies, who happen to be his fellow citizens.
Two years after President Bashar al-Assad agreed to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, there is mounting evidence that his government is flouting international law to drop jerry-built chlorine bombs on insurgent-held areas. Lately, the pace of the bombardments in contested areas like Idlib Province has picked up, rescue workers say, as government forces have faced new threats from insurgents. The Assad government has so far evaded more formal scrutiny because of political, legal and technical obstacles to assigning blame for the attacks — a situation that feels surreal to many Syrians under the bombs, who say it is patently clear the government drops them.
Weren’t we talking about a “red line” just recently?
