War against Syria Is Immoral and Unlawful

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The Intrepid Warrior
December 10, 2014

War against Syria Is Immoral and Unlawful
by Senator Dick Black
fitzgerald griffin foundation

LEESBURG, VA — Under pressure from Turkey and the Gulf States, policy makers are reviewing U.S. efforts against ISIS, with a view to renewing our push to overthrow the Syrian government. The air campaign against ISIS has enjoyed broad public support. However, fighting for regime change in Syria is not what Americans bargained for.
A Covert War of Aggression against Syria
Since 2011, we have waged a covert war of aggression against Syria. The customary justifications for lawful wars are that they are for self-defense or that they have been sanctioned by the United Nations. Neither condition exists in Syria. Because attacks on Syria may constitute unlawful acts of aggression, Western nations that willingly fought against ISIS have refused to make war against the Syrian Arab Republic. Nonetheless, the U.S. trains jihadists in CIA-run camps in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar. Hundreds of these terrorists are sent to attack Syria each month, fueling the bloodbath that has killed nearly 200,000 people and destroyed some of mankind’s greatest antiquities.
Syria’s Constitution Guarantees Religious Freedom
For what purpose do we attack Syria? President Bashar al Assad has never attacked any other country. Syria is a neutral, non-belligerent nation entitled to protection under international law. Its women have greater freedom than those in any other Arab country. The Syrian constitution guarantees religious freedom for Christians, Jews, Alawites, and Sunni Muslims.

For what purpose do we attack Syria? President Bashar al Assad has never attacked any other country. Syria is a neutral, non-belligerent nation entitled to protection under international law. Its women have greater freedom than those in any other Arab country. The Syrian constitution guarantees religious freedom for Christians, Jews, Alawites, and Sunni Muslims.

In the midst of war, Syrian Christians erected one of the largest statues of Jesus Christ on earth. The towering bronze statue can be seen from Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. By contrast, Syrian rebels reject women’s rights and execute those who refuse to convert to Islam. Advancing the rebels’ vile practices serves no legitimate national interest.

President Bashar al Assad of Syria
After 13 years at war, Americans are again asked to attack people labeled “bad guys” by the foreign policy elite. However, it is hard to make a case that President Assad is worse than the terrorists who would replace him.
The claim that Assad used poison gas was convincingly debunked by famed Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh. He attributes the Ghouta gas attack to Turkish intelligence agents working with Syrian rebels to discredit President Assad and to drag the United States into war with him. The Hersh report parallels that of respected Israeli-born journalist, Yossef Bodansky. Furthermore, the assertion that President Assad would attack his own capital city with poison gas is implausible.
Syria is often criticized for dropping barrel bombs from helicopters. But these crude, homemade weapons are not illegal under the Law of War. Although fearsome, they are hardly as lethal as the weapons the U. S. used during the “Shock and Awe” campaign in Iraq. And they cannot begin to compare with the indiscriminate allied carpet bombings of Germany and Japan. Barrel bombs are no more deadly than the mortars, suicide bombs, and mass executions employed by rebels.

Recently, a secretive witness identified only as “Caesar” testified that he had taken thousands of photos of dead Syrian prisoners. No one doubts that this war is brutal; however, only seven of those photos have been linked to “probable” Syrian prisoners. And since “Caesar” is quite possibly a rebel agent, it is difficult to distinguish between victims who died at the hands of the government and those murdered by the rebels themselves.

No one has accused the Syrian Army of suicide bombings, public executions, beheadings, amputations, crucifixions, or selling Christian and Yazidi females at organized slave markets. Yet the evidence that rebels have done these things is irrefutable.

The Syrian Army
There is abundant evidence that rebels routinely commit war crimes on a massive scale. No one has accused the Syrian Army of suicide bombings, public executions, beheadings, amputations, crucifixions, or selling Christian and Yazidi females at organized slave markets. Yet the evidence that rebels have done these things is irrefutable. Claims of prisoner abuse are often lodged against the government. But those allegations also serve to highlight the scarcity of rebel prisons. Rebels have little need for such POW camps, since they routinely execute their captives.
Turkey, ISIS, al Qaeda, and al Nusra
U.S. policy toward Syria is heavily influenced by Turkey, which is secretly allied with ISIS and al Nusra. Both are the progeny of al Qaeda —which carried out the 9-11 attacks, sending 3,000 Americans to fiery deaths at the Pentagon and Twin Towers. Additionally, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which incessantly demand military attacks against Assad, are known to be complicit in financing ISIS, al Nusra, and the Islamic Front. Each of those organizations has sworn to purge Syria of Christians, Jews, Alawites, and other “infidels.”

…the allies demanding the overthrow of Syria are all dictatorships, while just this year, Syria conducted presidential elections that fairly reflected the will of the people.

It is hardly encouraging that the allies demanding the overthrow of Syria are all dictatorships, while just this year, Syria conducted presidential elections that fairly reflected the will of the people.

U.S. military action against Syria is immoral and unlawful. Our tax dollars are training swarms of murderous terrorists. They will eventually return to set their homelands ablaze. If we succeed in toppling President Assad, radical Islamists will fly the dread black-and-white flag of al Qaeda above Damascus. And we will have handed our sworn enemy its greatest victory in the Global War on Terror.
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 The Intrepid Warrior is copyright © 2014 by Senator Dick Black and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation. All rights reserved. Editors may use this column if this copyright information is included.Dick Black is the state senator from Virginia’s 13th district. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and the Command and General Staff College. Colonel Black flew 269 combat helicopter missions in Vietnam. As a forward air controller, he directed over 1,000 bombs dropped in support of the 1st Marine Regiment. He was wounded and his radiomen were killed in action at the Hoi An River.
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