Famine and starvation to come from Putin’s war

 

Fr. Shay Cullen
10 June 2022

The savage war of Vladimir Putin against the peaceful people of Ukraine is the work of a man with ambitions bent on trying to secure his place in Russian history as the leader that restored the false “glory” of the Russian Soviet Union that disintegrated in 1989. There was no “glory” there but oppression, occupation of half of Europe, and a Cold War that threatened nuclear annihilation of the world.

Putin’s massively destructive war, with continuous atrocities and war crimes, is now threatening another form of annihilation- that of millions of people in Africa and the Middle East that depend on Ukrainian wheat, maize, and cooking oil as do other poor nations of the world. President Putin has blocked the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian cereals and cooking oil from Odessa on the Black Sea. He wants sanctions lifted before he will lift the blockade. In the meantime, evidence has emerged that Russia is stealing Ukrainian grain and shipping it to Crimea and then to Syria. It is a war tactic to starve the world and force the Western nations to lift sanctions while millions go hungry and many die. 

Ukraine was exporting 4.5 million tons of agricultural produce per month through its ports on the Black Sea. There are around 20 million tons of grains stockpiled in grain silos and there will be no storage facilities available for this year’s harvest of wheat, barley, and grapeseed. Despite the war and the departure of up to five million Ukrainians, the farmers have continued to plant and soon to reap but nowhere to store it. The sales are needed for national survival. 
The Ukrainian train system is still working and is transporting grain non-stop to the border with Europe, hoping to reach the shipping ports of Hamburg and Rotterdam. They cannot transport the huge quantities needed by the hungry world fast enough. Besides, the rail size (gauge) of Ukraine’s railways is bigger than the European’s and how to transfer the of grain to European trains is causing huge backlogs at the European borders. Huge cranes have to lift the Ukrainian train wagons, the under-carriages are removed and replaced with European size wheels, and the wagon, filled with grain, is then lowered on the European track for the train to continue to the port. 

Some farmers and exporters are using barges on the rivers to bring grain to Romania. Trucks are being used also but the drivers need special permits and licenses and travel documents that take a week to process. All this is under the threat of Russian air strikes. 

Putin tried to capture the whole of Ukraine but has failed spectacularly due to incompetence, callous disregard for human life, and the powerful resistance of the Ukrainian people and army and air force. Even though they are outnumbered three-to-one, the Ukrainians are fighting back bravely and have won back an important city and territory from the advancing Russian juggernaut army that is using brute force and poor tactics. 

The brave Ukrainians have sacrificed and fought and died with courage in large numbers, fighting for their homeland against the pride and vicious intentions of Putin’s invasion.  Putin will be remembered and brought to justice and condemned for this massacre of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians by the thousands and the wanton destruction of cities. 

Even the bodies of thousands of Russian youth are left to rot on the battlefield by the uncaring Russian leader. Long-distance bombing is destroying all civilian buildings. This is their battle strategy and with the forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, a war crime in itself, they think they can conquer Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian propaganda tells the Russian people stories of great success.

This war of aggression and occupation of a sovereign nation is a gross violation of the UN charter and is morally reprehensible and illegal. The UN Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres, said that the war, together with the Covid pandemic, the drought and floods, and higher temperatures of climate change, "threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity followed by malnutrition, mass hunger, and famine." 

Global food prices have risen 30 percent since the invasion of Ukraine began. The only immediate answer is to get the Ukrainian grain and cooking oil and Russian fertilizer out to the world market to prevent the onset of famine in the poorest, drought-racked nations in Africa and the Middle East. In parts of Africa, the animals and crops of the poor have died. Climate change is destroying once fertile lands. 

In Asia, the fruit harvest like mangos in Pakistan and India has dropped by 70 percent this year. In the Philippines, the harvest of natural organic (unsprayed with potassium nitrate) mango trees have failed in the past three years and this year only a small crop was harvested due to climate change and global warming. 

The war in Ukraine is causing inflation. In the Philippines, the economy is reeling with the price of food increasing by 2.6 percent, electricity by 18 percent, and the cost of fuel and transport by 10.3 percent. This is hurting the workers. Diesel alone is up by 58 percent, a shocking sudden increase due to the war and the EU oil embargo on Russian oil. In Eastern Visayas, inflation was higher showing a 5.3 percent increase in the cost of food and essentials overall. 

The only relief was seen for the world so far has been the release of 15 billion US dollars by the World Bank for projects addressing food insecurity over the next 15 months. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, blamed the “war of choice” made by Putin to invade a sovereign nation and he told the media that there was now looming the "greatest global food security crisis of our time."

We are back to massive increases in the cost of survival and living and all have to make changes in our lifestyle and turn to alternative food sources like planting backyard gardens with vegetables. harvesting fallen branches for fuel, and using powerful solar flashlights or small solar panels to cut electricity bills. 

The war in Ukraine will not be over for about two years because the world democracies cannot abandon Ukraine to the aggression of the Kremlin. If Putin wins in Ukraine, he will surely attack other former Soviet-era nations like Latvia and Estonia and start another European, or even a world war, with NATO. The crises will grow worse and we can expect hardship ahead with more belt-tightening. Self-reliance and strong global sharing of resources with the poorest nations is what are needed.

www.preda.org

The Loss Of Life In A Twenty-Year War

Life is precious and sacred. Many people believe in the sanctity of the human person with rights and dignity to be protected and preserved. This is not true for many more who kill and murder and execute their perceived enemies. Those that declare war and invade other nations are also guilty of bringing death and destruction. There is no “good” war. In the end, after millions are dead and wounded, peace is negotiated and made, and life returns to normal. Why then fight the war in the first place and not negotiate a settlement of differences before violence is inflicted? That is because war is very profitable for weapons manufacturers. A prolonged “endless” war is the best thing ever for the industrial military complex.

This industry dominates and greatly influences American politics and the US economy. It is what President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about in 1946. He called it a danger to the nation. The permanent armaments industry is today immensely greater and more powerful. It needs, and perhaps, promotes continuous wars to sell more arms to prosper and grow.

 

The politicians, the arms manufacturers and traders get their political candidates elected who seemingly work continually to support military interventions. This is the great wrong behind all wars: immense greed fuelled by lies, ambition and power. The American people are mostly duped into believing that their national security is always under threat and a super strong military, always at war, with real or imagined enemies, is necessary.

 

The futility of the Afghan twenty-year unwinnable war has brought incredible suffering and death to millions of civilians and soldiers and generated hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced people. The invasion was launched primarily to deprive Al Qaeda terrorits a haven in Afghanistan, which was then controlled by the Taliban. When that was achieved, the occupation continued and was prolonged mostly for the glory of US career generals and the benefit of the US industrial military complex and a few thousand corrupt Afghan politicians and their cronies. The immorality of it is staggering. We do not live in a just or moral world. The disaster is still unfolding as thousands of people are rushing to the airport to escape the Taliban on US and UK planes.

 

According to research by Brown University, the number of innocent Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire or killed by suicide bombers is a shocking 47,245 men, women and children. Countless others are wounded, having lost arms and legs and they will suffer for the rest of their lives. Besides, half-trained 66,000 Afghan army and police were killed. The number of Taliban and other opposition fighters that were killed is 51,191. A total of 164,436 Afghan people died in this avoidable war.

 

In Afghanistan, in the 20-year war, as many as 2,448 American service members were killed up to April 2021. An additional 3,846 U.S. contractors, civilians and mercenaries were killed, and as many as 1,344 service people of the NATO alliance died also. The number of aid workers killed is 444. Seventy-nine journalists were also killed.  A total of 8,161 needless deaths.

 

How could a mostly unpaid guerrilla band of fighters, armed mostly with AK-47s, RPG rocket launchers, home-made bombs and riding pickups and motorbikes with walkie-talkie radios, defeat the greatest, most powerful sophisticated well-paid army, air force and navy in the world, the best funded and most expensive?

According to Brown University calculation, the US spent $2.26 trillion in Afghanistan, or $300 million a day. The 29,950 US troops with 300,000 Afghan military and police were beaten to a standstill by a much smaller force and the US under Donald Trump gave up and sued for peace.

 

It seems that the Taliban had a few things going for them more than guns and bombs, religion for one. They were defeated in 2001 and driven out of Afghanistan but they hid in the mountains and regrouped. Their deep radical Islamic faith, some may call it fanatical, kept them going.

 

Their unshakable belief that Allah was truly on their side and their hope of establishing in their native land a strict even cruel,misogynist Islamic state, under Allah, was their unshakable dream. Besides, death in a Holy War would bring them their instant reward in paradise. That is what they fought for, not a paycheck.

 

Their medieval harsh religious faith motivated them sharply and they became ferocious fighters, taking risks and were a formidable enemy against a foreign invader on the battlefield with all the odds of weaponry and manpower against them. They had defeated the Russians and were convinced they could defeat the United States.

 

Crucial for victory was their positive negotiations with local tribal leaders to win the hearts and minds of the local population. This they did by infiltrating their sleepers into villages and municipalities. As their fighters drew near to a village or town or provincial capital and surrounded it, their sleepers had already prepared the way and emerged. They had influenced local tribal leaders to support them without resistance by making deals and paying cash handouts. It worked. They allowed poppy cultivation and heroine production and earned millions of dollars from it to finance their war. They captured border points and collected tax on everything imported or exported.

 

The Taliban had a clear tactic to negotiate with government troops and police to persuade them not to kill fellow Afghans but save themselves and their families. They left them little choice, desert to us or die with their wives and children. Thousands of unpaid soldiers changed sides and they delivered their US-supplied weapons to the Taliban, too.

 

Many Afghan army commanders were corrupt and brutal to their troops so the deserter didn’t need much encouragement to switch sides. Eighty-five billion US dollars was spent on training them to fight, according to Brown University.

 

A pre-negotiated surrender seems to explain how the Taliban took provincial capitals quickly and Kabul without firing a shot. It was pre-arranged and the United States seems to be caught by surprise unless they had agreed to a secret surrender that came all too quickly for most. The human cost is immense as stated above. The financial cost to the United States is gigantic. It is obliged to pay health and disability costs for almost 4 million war veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars costing almost $2 trillion, wars which have already cost the US $2.6 trillion to wage and most of it is borrowed with interests. By 2050, that interest is estimated to cost the American taxpayer $6.5 trillion. The banks and lenders are thrilled, they love lending to finance wars.

 

Where did most of the $2 trillion in war costs go? You may ask. Where else but to the industrial military complex and companies therein and they are very happy about it. They love wars, too.  What was achieved from these wars? Nothing but human suffering, devastation and misery. Now, the Taliban are back with promises of a less harsh regime than 20 years ago. But, will they keep them? That remains to be seen.

Who Doesn’t Want Peace and Reconciliation?

 

Who doesn’t want peace, harmony, and reconciliation in their lives, their family, personal relationships, their nation and the world? Only those who can make personal gain from chaos.

 

Jenny May (not her real name) is 14 years of age and wants peace above all. Without reconciliation with her mother, she will continue to suffer greatly. In the padded therapy room, she unleashes her pain, emotional hurt and deep anguish. The anger at her mother comes gushing out. For her abuser, there is bitter hatred.

 

She howls, screams and punches the cushions continually. Her cries make me and the therapists shiver with every moment of her outpouring of pain. Our hair stands on end with the shock of such naked hatred being released like a volcanic eruption. She throws herself against the foam-padded wall in a violent counter-attack against her rapist as she relives those terrible times of helplessness and fear. 

 

Jenny is an abused girl, raped by the live-in partner of her mother who did not want to believe her daughter when she finally told what happened when her mother left her alone with the man who had replaced her father. She shouts at her mother, “Why did you let it happen, why did you not believe me and help me? I hate you, hate you!” she cried out.

 

Later in counseling, Jenny May says despite the betrayal of her mother she wants to talk with her. Will there be reconciliation and peace-making? That we don’t know. For many of the 56 children recovering and healing in the Preda Home for abused children, it is similar. They want reconciliation and peace with their unsupportive mothers. Her silence was akin to approval. Her inaction makes her an accomplice in the terrible crime. It will have life-long consequences for both her and Jenny May.  

 

The lack of Emotional Release Therapy for most victims means the pain has to be kept locked up inside, a cork tightly pressed into the emotional bottle. A barrier of repressed memories is built up as the victims struggle to survive the ordeal as they grow and mature and find a way to survive and make something of life. Self-induced forgetfulness keeps them going, affecting their personality, character and behavior throughout life. For peace and reconciliation to take place, there has to be a change within both parties.

 

For dialogue to be possible, there has to be justice for Jenny May so a criminal charge of rape of a minor will be filed against the live-in partner and the mother will have to support it if there is to be reconciliation and peace between child and the mother. 

 

Conflicting parties in family, society or between nations can find a peaceful settlement if they really want to have peaceful co-existence. As for the individual, Jenny May, so too for the world- much pain before peace.

 

Governments that are invading, occupying and blockading the territory or seas of the native inhabitants are robbing them of their sovereign rights and national dignity. They have aggressive instincts like the rapist of Jenny May. Appeasement and dialogue is not possible but a change of mind and heart is and justice must be done. There will be no peaceful solution by insulting and humiliating their opponents by threatening obliteration, violence and the threat of war.

 

There is enough war in the world. In Yemen, the children scream in pain and die and hundreds of thousands are starving. They too feel the pain, anger and even hatred at being oppressed and raped. War brings only misery, great pain for the victims and for the aggressor. An average of 20 former US soldiers commit suicide a day in the USA. In 2012 alone, an estimated 6,500 former military personnel died by suicide. More active duty veterans, 177, succumbed to suicide that year than were killed in combat, 176. The Army suffered 52 percent of the suicides from all branches, according to the US State Department. With such pain and suffering, the opiate addiction is inevitable.   

 

In the United States, the warmongers are beating the drums of war. These war-loving politicians are likely to be in cahoots and collusion with the private war contractors they made it a colossally big business. They love war. They want to sell weapons, provide services, give protection. The munitions manufacturers likely have huge stockpiles of bombs and bullets with expiration dates. They must use them or lose them.

 

These war contractors are still deliriously dizzy from the billions of dollars they earned from the Iraqi war. All in all, a total of US$138 billion dollars was gouged from the pockets of the American taxpayers. The top ten corporations earned US$72 billion out of the Iraqi invasion, according to the Financial Times.   

 

War contractors are hungry for more taxpayers money. The feeding frenzy is not over yet. The US State Department paid US$3 billion from 2011 to 2015 for the private contractors guarding the huge US Embassy compound in Baghdad. This contract was likely renewed for a higher price until the present.

 

One of the biggest war contractors during the Iraqi invasion was Halliburton. The chairman of Halliburton was Dick Cheney, the Vice President of George W. Bush. Cheney pushed for the invasion of Iraq. His subsidiary company, Kellog Brown & Root, earned a cool US$39.5 billion in wartime contracts.   

 

The US sanctions against Iran are another moneymaking ploy. President Trump withdrew from the agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear development and imposed sanctions on Iran so it can’t sell its oil. Prices of oil, diesel and gasoline have soared. This benefits greatly the US oil drilling and fracking companies who now can produce and profit from higher price of oil. Everyone else loses.

 

Who wants peaceful negotiation? Certainly not those who profit from war. 

Welcome the Refugees

The bombs keep falling and the barrels fall from the sky and burst with a massive boom and searing, burning flames consume the men, women and children.  The chlorine chemical poison spreads among the ruins of Allepo.

 

The people are dead, others are suffering in agony, the children are screaming. The White Helmet Rescuers rush to dig out the bodies of the dead and the wounded. The paramedics rush to wash them down, give them oxygen masks to breath, if they have any. Others half-buried in the collapsed ruins of their houses, far from help, choke to death, scarred or maimed.

 

They are starved, surrounded, killed one by one by the Assad snipers. The UN relief convoy of desperately needed food is bombed and burnt to ashes, seven more died. They flee the horror of violent death and hunger as the mayhem rained down on them. They are the Syrian refugees of war, and they flee the violence and indescribable cruelty. Who will give them welcome?  

 

In other parts of Syria, the towns and villages are reduced to ruins as Isis moves closer to take over the villages and towns and impose their cruel regime of torture. Soon the chopping off of hands, arms and heads, the summary execution will begin. The rape and abuse of children, boys and girls, men and women follows. The sex slavery of thousands of people of this Isis regime is well known and the people flee. They are the refugees begging for help, asking for a place of refuge and safety, non-violence and peace.

 

They drive anything to escape, when all vehicles are gone, they leave everything they owned, they run and exhausted they walk through deserts, over mountains and hills in a desperate effort to escape the vicious retaliation to come. 

 

They, once respectable, educated professional people are now the desperate refugees. They are the victims of the curse of Isis. They are the victims of Assad, of rebels, of jihadists, of soldiers of every nationality, color and creed and victims of apathy and indifference, selfishness and xenophobia.

 

They are the victims of rival nations fighting for influence and power. Can the nations so disunited meeting in New York pretending to be United Nations solve the greatest displacement of people since World War II?

 

There are 65 million people displaced in the world today. Eleven million people in Syria have been killed or forced to flee and where have they fled to and found welcome? Believe it or not, the truth is that the Middle-Eastern countries have sheltered most refugees. There are 4.7 million refugees in the countries neighboring Syria. Turkey has taken in almost 2.7 million. The tiny nation of Lebanon has welcomed more than one million. Europe has taken in 1.3 million and they call it a crisis and the refugees, according to the extremist right, must be stopped and deported. No welcome there.  

 

The children have suffered the most. Eleven thousand children lose their homes, schools and playgrounds every day. Half of all refugees are children under 18. They face the blasts and bullets, rockets and mortars and all consuming fires. They suffer burns all over their bodies from the napalm-like brimstone that is rained upon them from the gasoline-fueled barrel bombs. The black-hearted regime has unleashed a violence that is a horrific war crime. It is a regime of unfettered power and oppression that has, with its allies, poured out hatred and the fury of all-out war, suffering and death on thousands of children.

 

Many have fled to the European countries and found only a little welcome but more and more rejection and exclusion. The extremists on the political right are there to block and deny them help and relief, rest and peace.

 

The caring, welcoming and valiant people who make up the thousands of volunteers who have welcomed and reached out to help the refugees are the voice of justice and hope. But they are not winning the political ground. The far right groups are growing in political clout and are stirring up hatred against the refugees and asylum seekers. Some more extreme are burning down their shelters.

 

Is there really a refugee crisis in Europe? In fact, 86 percent of the world's refugees are being sheltered in low and middle income countries. In all of Europe only 1.8 million refugees made it across the borders. Most were accepted in Germany but the far right wants them excluded.

 

The numbers seeking asylum as per population tell the story. In every 100,000 Hungarians, only 1,800 refugees claimed asylum in 2015. Sweden followed close behind with 1,667 asylum applications per 100,000 Swedes.

 

The figure for Germany was 587 per 100,000 population and for the UK it was 60 applications only. They have a tightly closed door. The EU average was 260 asylum seekers in every 100,000  of the population. The population of Europe is 743.1 million people. The number of refugees seeking asylum are but a few drops in the ocean.

 

In the United States, 10,000 refugees have been admitted and President Obama plans to admit another 10,000 refugees. Canada has accepted 30,000 and will take in more. 

 

It is the rich materialistic secular Europe that is growing more racist. It is a small but growing part of society living more in the lowest selfish strata of human existence. They cannot look and see the other and have dialogue and reach out and share their bounty with the needy refugees.  Unlike those in Europe with a welcome and that we need more of. 

  

The most immediate solution is to make peace in the Middle East and end the war. In the meantime, the refugees need  a home and have a right to a temporary place to stay and find peace and a welcome.  

Pope Francis Working for Peace in Syria

When Pope Francis called for a peaceful and prayerful response and a negotiated conclusion for the Syrian savage civil and sectarian religious war, he was speaking with deep concern, wisdom, and spiritual insight. Working for a non-violent solution is the greatest good. It seems his words have been heeded. Prayer works.

A missile strike by the United States and supporting countries against Syria has been averted for now. The threat was to stop more chemical attacks.

Over a 100,000 civilians have been killed in the past two years, mostly by the government forces and now more by the most deadly chemical poison gas attack last 21 August in Damascus, in a rebel held area, as confirmed by the UN chemical weapons investigators. The gas killed over 1,429 women and children (400 of them children) in the worst crime against humanity so far. Whole cities have been destroyed and deserted.

Russia is a long time ally of Syria and continues to supply the Assad regime with weapons and they set up Assad's chemical warfare capabilities many years ago. The stockpiles are in about 42 locations all over the country. The media has shown that some of the precursor chemical ingredients for the deadly nerve poison gas Sarin was also supplied by Western countries including British companies.

The greatest fear by all is that some of the stockpiles could fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda terrorists to be used against their enemies including Israel and Western countries. The threat of imminent missile strikes by the United States and its supporters have now receded. It seems that Pope Francis' call for non violent solutions was heard.

The American Secretary of State John Kerry mentioned in an otherwise belligerent speech a few weeks ago that the chemical weapons of President Assad must be put out of action and beyond use, one way or another.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin seized on that remark as a negotiating approach to head off an attack by the United States and developed it as a solution by putting the Syrian chemical weapons under international control. No easy task. This was welcomed by President Obama while leaving the threat of a US unilateral attack is still on the table. The agreement has been reached but giving until June 2014 for them all to be removed and destroyed is too long a time.

A US preemptive missile strike could cripple Assad's war capabilities and also have far reaching unexpected and unseen consequences and ignite a regional war. It could lead to the fall of the Assad regime, then the Christian communities in Syria would be the target of massacres by the fanatical Islamic jihads or holy war warriors fighting to establish a Islamic state in Syria. They are committing war crimes themselves. The more moderate Muslim opponents of Assad have these radicals to cope with.

The Christians are unfortunately loosely identified as allied with Assad. The Alawites, the Muslim Sect founded in the 8th century to which Assad and his followers belong make up 12% of the Syrian population but have ruled with an iron fist for the past forty years. They face possible massacres too if Assad falls.

Why are the Russians so defensive of Syria and Assad, a war criminal, his regime and his cronies? One could be that corrupt Russian business cronies of Putin have billions of dollars and gold stashed away in secret accounts in Syria as a safe haven like they have in Cyprus. The Russians almost went berserk when the EU central bank demanded a big tax on those billions to pay Cyprus's debts.

Another reason the Russian government opposes any US military action is because it has sold billions of dollars worth of alleged useless aerial defense systems to Assad and other countries. US advanced military technology will quickly overwhelm them showing they are antiquated and ineffective defense systems as was seen in Libya. An alleged massive fraud that will damage the Russian arms industry in the eyes of its many customers worldwide.

The complexity of the competing sectarian fractions in Syria each supported by different outside countries makes the conflict a proxy religious war. In Syria, the population is Shias 13%,  Sunnis 72%, Alawites 12%, Christian and Druze 3%.

The only likely peaceful solution will have to be found by forming temporary self ruling regions with representatives in a coalition government in Damascus. That solution is not very successful in Iraq except for the Kurdish region in north Iraq but it could be better than continuous all-out war. Working for peace, a cease-fire, and negotiations has to be the way forward. 

Syria - Choosing the Lesser Evil

The attention of the international news media is focused on what the United States will do to prevent the Assad regime from using abhorrent chemical weapons again. The US Senate has given the go signal to President Obama. The alleged war crime and crimes against humanity that Assad and his followers are accused of committing by using poison gas to kill as many as 1,429 people, four hundred of them children, are shocking and must be condemned.

The evidence that has been presented so far by the Western governments, while still waiting for the report from the UN inspectors, gives a very strong case that the Assad government did indeed commit a heinous war crime against its own people, most of them civilians, women and children. We have to speak out and denounce such evil act if indeed true as it appears to be so.

The use of poison gas has been internationally outlawed since the First World War as a weapon of mass destruction, the evidence so far indicates that sarin, a deadly gas that brings an agonizing and painful death to its victims was used in the attack. There have been other reported incidents of smaller attacks with video evidence of dying and dead people and flocks of birds downed in rebel held areas due to a suspected gas attack.

According to the Wikipedia on-line encyclopedia it says: "Syria is one of five states that have not signed and one of  seven that have not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons. However, in 1968, Syria acceded to the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases. In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Syria denied that it had chemical weapons, but admitted it possessed such weapons in 2012. The Syrian President had earlier alluded to a chemical weapon capability in public statements, in 1990 and 1997".

In desperation and fear of a possible defeat and subsequent wipe out of his family and his tribe, Assad and his military are apparently resorting to chemical warfare. This is a horrendous crime and can cause terrible deaths among civilians. If the wind suddenly changes then it can be carried into the center of Damascus and kill many more including diplomats and the many Filipinos there who refuse to leave their well-paying jobs.

The British parliament has voted against any military strike to degrade the capability of Assad to use these terrible weapons. The French President is waiting to support the decision of the United States when the US congress finally decides whether to authorize a strike or not.

President Obama was caught between a rock and a hard place. He has implacable enemies among the fanatical members of the Republican Party who have blocked his many positive initiatives in other areas in the past.

If he ordered a limited strike against Syria he would be lambasted with criticism from his Republican Congressional enemies. When he did not strike they were already questioning his leadership ability and practically calling him a do-nothing President and would blame him if the Assad regime was to commit more war crimes.

Besides, if Obama had ordered a strike, the Assad regime would possibly retaliate by striking back against Israel with chemical weapons. Obama would be blamed for that too. The Israeli government has distributed thousands of gas masks to a panicky nation just in case. In a politically smart move, he wisely deferred to the US congress to make the decision.

The ball is now in their court. If they don’t approve a strike they can be accused of ignoring a horrendous war crime and giving encouragement to the enemy of the Syrian people allowing them to be gassed to death for their opposition to his oppressive regime. It will be seen as if the US Congress is condoning a modern day Nazi death chamber.

This is anathema to the Jewish race; millions of them were gassed to death under the Nazi genocide of WWII. They have enough gas chambers, one Scud missile into their territory and all hell will break loose. Israel could well strike against the palace and person of Assad and his mother who is the power behind the Assad throne. May all out war never happen.

There has to be a choice as to which is the greatest good, to strike or not to strike. And a choice as to which is the greatest evil, to allow Assad to tyrannically gas thousands more of his people or try to prevent it by destroying his delivery vehicles such as the scud and other missiles and their command and control centers. We are morally bound to choose the lesser evil in such situations. That is the choice facing the US Congress.