The Aftermath of the Syrian Gas Attack and the U.S. Cruise Missile Strike on Syrian Airbase

The Aftermath of the Syrian Gas Attack and the U.S. Cruise Missile Strike on Syrian Airbase

By E. Stanley Ukeni

I must admit that I was very conflicted about writing this piece. Since Tuesday, as events unfolded, I struggled with whether to write about the recent developments in Syria. I would start to write, but then I would hear a whisper in my ear caution, ‘are you sure you want to do this’.  The voice is so compelling that it gives me pause to reconsider.

Until now, I have purposely resisted the temptation to write about the conflicts in the Middle East. It’s not that it’s a topic that I do not have strong opinions about, or that I do not understand. No, that’s not my reason. The Syrian conflict is much more complex than a civil war, coupled with a terrorist insurgency. There are complex international geopolitical dimensions to the war—with broad medium and long term ramification for many of the seen and the unseen actors in the conflict.

An attempt to delve into this aspect of the conflict would be very dangerous indeed. What you should know is that the stakes are very high for the principle players in this theater of geopolitical chess game.  

What’s important now is that I have found it necessary to break my long-held-rule, at least this one time, to share my thoughts about the despicable gas attack in Syria that claimed the lives of innocent women and children. I was indeed a horrendous crime against humanity—one that requires every person of conscience to raise his or her voice in condemnation of this unconscionable atrocity.

Before I proceed, I’d like to share the background of the particular atrocity that I’m referring to—at least, as I understand it. On Tuesday, the 4^th day of April, 2017, a horrific sarin gas attack in the Syrian north-western province of Idlib claimed over fifty lives, including women and children and injured more than a hundred and fifty people.

Within hours of the horrific and barbarous chemical weapons attack, photos of lifeless bodies of children and women victims of the attack, along with videos of victims of the attack foaming from their mouth, flooded the media. These helped stoke global outrage.

Most western governments unanimously believed that Syrian government forces carried out the attack using one of the world’s deadliest chemical weapons—an internationally banned nerve agent, but several of Syrian backers, including Russia, have offered up a contrary narrative.

A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, on Russian State television, suggested that Syrian Air Force jets had bombed a suspected ‘terrorist’ bomb making factory that contained chemical weapons that was procured in Iraq. Obviously, the leaders of Western countries are not buying his version of events. And to be fair, it’s kind of difficult to do so, given the Russia’s unwavering support for the regime of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.       

It should be recalled that, in September of 2015—at the invitation of the beleaguered Syrian government, Russia militarily intervened in the Syrian civil war. Moscow’s robust intervention in the conflict helped turn the tide of the conflict in the favor of the Syrian regime.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone with conscience would see the deplorable pictures of the victims of the Syrian chemical attack—especially those of innocent women and children, and not feel a sense of moral outrage.

And this is exactly what happened. A collective outcry from global citizens for a response to this blatant crime against humanity reached the corridors of power. Expectantly, in the fog of overwhelming emotional demand for action against the perpetrators of the heinous crime a response is ordered.

On Thursday, the 6^th of April, 2016, the United States President, Donald Trump, ordered a military strike on a Syrian government airbase from where it is believed the chemical weapon attack was launched from, a couple of days earlier. Following the executive order, USS Porter and USS Ross warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles strikes at the Shayrat Airbase where the warplanes that carried out the chemical attacks at 8:40 p.m. ET (3:40 a.m. local time).

The airstrikes targeted aircrafts, aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems—in fact the key infrastructures of an operational airfield. 

Since the U.S. Cruise missile strikes, there have been a number of recriminations from supporters of the Assad government.  The United Nations Security Council met at 11:30 EDT (15:30 GMT) on Friday, April 7, 2017, to discuss Thursday’s U.S. cruise missile strikes on the Shayrat Airbase. It was a rather contentious meeting.

As all eyes look to see how the Russians will respond to the strike in Syria, it is well to note that it is doubtful that Moscow will abandon the Syrian Regime. Russia considers Assad’s Syria as a critical asset in the Mediterranean. They will not readily relinquish this asset, even at great cost. 

With the Kremlin ratcheting up rhetoric by calling the U.S. strike an illegal aggression, we hope that this cruise missile strike does not precipitate an unnecessary military confrontation between Washington and Moscow.

I think that now that an unequivocal message has been sent to the Bashar al-Assad regime that the targeting of civilians with weapons of mass destruction is unacceptable, and would never be tolerated by the international community, it’s time to de-escalate the rhetoric between the US and the Russian in other to avoid an unintended consequence that would have a far more devastating consequence for our world.  

Authored by E. Stanley Ukeni, © 2017. All Rights Reserved. This material and other articles or stories posted on this blog site may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed, in whole or in part, without prior expressed written permission from the author, E. Stanley Ukeni.

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