US Record on Chemical Weapons Weakens Standing in Challenging Syria

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/us-record-chemical-weapons-weakens-standing-challenging-syria-1379079131

Neither of the world's two largest recipients of U.S. military aid -- Israel and Egypt -- is a party to the convention either. Never has Congress or any administration of either party called on Israel or Egypt to disarm their chemical weapons arsenals, much less threatened war for their failure to do so. U.S. policy, therefore, appears to be that while it is legitimate for its allies Israel and Egypt to refuse to ratify this important arms control convention, Syria needed to be singled out for punishment for its refusal.

It's not as if Syria is the only country which has actually engaged in chemical warfare. Egypt used phosgene and mustard gas in the mid-1960s during its intervention in Yemen's civil war. The U.S.-backed Egyptian regime has continued its chemical weapons research and development program.

Israel is widely believed to have produced and stockpiled an extensive range of chemical weapons and to be engaged in ongoing research and development of additional chemical weaponry. Indeed, Syria may have began its chemical weapons program as a direct response to Israel's chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

<snip>

Despite ongoing Iraqi support for Abu Nidal and other terrorist groups during the 1980s, the Reagan administration removed Iraq from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism to provide the regime with thiodiglycol, a key component in the manufacture of mustard gas, and other chemical precursors for their weapons program. In fact, recently released CIA documents show that DIA personnel were dispatched to Baghdad during the war to provide Saddam Hussein's regime with U.S. satellite data on the location of Iranian troop concentrations in the full knowledge that the Iraqis were using chemical weapons against them.

<snip>

A case can be made, then, that had the United States pursued a policy that addressed the proliferation of nonconventional weapons through region-wide disarmament rather than trying to single out Syria, the Syrian regime would have rid itself of its chemical weapons some years earlier, along with Israel and Egypt, and the tragic use of such ordnance and the resulting rush to war would have never happened.

[AllTooEasy]

1. BullShit!

1) Israel never used Chemical weapons. Syria isn't "singled out" for having chemical weapons but for using them.

2) Obama wasn't the president when Egypt used chemical weapons 50 years ago. That was under LBJ.

3) Obama wasn't president when Iraq used chemical weapons in the 80s. That was under a Republican President named Ronald Reagan.

4) When did Obama single out Syria? Oh yeah, after Syria killed 1400 people with chemical weapons. Who else has done that in 20 years, or under Obama?

Plus, your "case" is naiave wishful thinking. You honestly think Assad could be trusted? The same guy that reponded with killings to peaceful protests to change his gov't. You never stop to think that Assad procured chemical weapons by his own initiative. He's just a good guy that was forced to get his own? I guess Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, and every other countries in that region didn't notice that Israel and Egypt had non-conventional weapons, huh?

5) Just because Assad had chemical weapons didn't mean he didn't have to used them. Nobody forced him to use them. Possessing them is not why he's "singled out". He's "singled out" because he used them.

6) Egypt inherited their chemical weapons from Britiain after the Brits left in 1954, chemical weapons the Brits stashed there and used earlier in 1917 during the second battle of Gaza (http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/egypt/chemical/). I like how you left that out, probably because you're a Brit.

Try again.



6) Why are you singling out the US, and not every other country who didn't "addressed the proliferation of nonconventional weapons through region-wide disarmament".

7) What rush to war? There's been delay after delay, after rethink, after negotiations, after delay.

[eridani]

2. White phosphorus is a chemical weapon, and Israel has damned well used it in Gaza

Saudi Arabia is no more trustworthy than Assad. We just sold them 100 cluster bombs, btw. Obama is continuing the same imperial policies of his predecessors. He's not, of course, responsible for originating them. The Saudis and UAE want war on Syria to enable the Sunni majority there to exterminate the religious minorities. "Christians to Beirut; Alawites to the grave."

The US doesn't give a flying fuck about piles of dead Muslim bodies--why else the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan? It's all about military hegemony, period. If we care so much about innocent dead people all around the world, why are we the world's biggest arms exporter.

I'm an American, and not at all fond of the Brits who sold Assad most of his chemical weapons precursors.

The delays are an excellent thing, and have occurred because world public opinion is overwhelmingly against war.

[bvar22]

3. Well, there IS that.

DURec for the context.

The USA is also one of the few nations NOT to sign the BAN against Land Mines
and "Cluster Munitions", and still distributes those to our "allies".

The US continues to manufacture, use, and distribute Napalm (under another name) which has been banned by civilized countries. (This is a truly frightful Chemical Weapon)

Hopefully, as the birth defects continue to mount in Iraq, Depleted Uranium munitions popular with the US Military will be banned in the near future.

The USA really does not have a Moral Standing for complaining about the weapons other countries use.

[malaise]

4. That simple n/t