Islam: the Good, the Bad, and the Everyday: chemical weapons

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Mideast Week in Review

by Michael Isenberg.

The news from the Middle East this week was dominated by the war in Syria.

Fighting raged in the Eastern Ghouta region, in the suburbs of Damascus. The BBC reported over 200 civilians were killed. The Assad regime has kept rebel-occupied Eastern Ghouta under siege, cut off from the outside world, since 2013. Four hundred thousand people are trapped there, starving, freezing, and desperate for medical supplies. Now, with many troops freed up by successes in Aleppo and other parts of the country, the government is attempting to retake the region. In a characteristically impotent gesture, the United States and the United Nations have, according to the BBC, “called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.” Such demands are ultimately fruitless, since Assad has no motive to cut off hostilities while he’s winning, unless it's to provide himself with a temporary tactical advantage.

Meanwhile, monitors on the ground accuse the Syrian government of conducting six chemical weapon attacks with chlorine gas during the past month. @SyriaCivilDef reported that one of these attacks, in Saraqeb (northwest part of the country), injured nine, including three of their volunteers, called “White Hats.” The BBC reported that in response to the allegations, which the Syrian government denies, Israeli warplanes struck a Scientific Studies and Research Centre site near Damascus. The site is believed to be used for the manufacture of chemical weapons, in violation of the Russian-brokered agreement that Syria concluded with the Obama Administration after a 2013 chemical attack. In my humble opinion, the Syrian government is stupid to engage in these attacks. Crossing that line is one of the few things guaranteed to bring a military response from either the United States or Israel.

But not the only thing.

On Wednesday night, US forces launched artillery and airborne attacks against forces allied with the Syrian government near the Euphrates River, killing 100. The US said the attack was in retaliation for a raid by government forces against the headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—the coalition of Arabs and Kurds that has been in the forefront of the fight against ISIS. I’m glad to see the US standing by the SDF—we owe them. It is a pleasant change from our weak response to Turkish attacks against the Kurds in the north of the country last week.

On Saturday an Iranian drone infiltrated Israeli airspace from Syria. An Israeli helicopter shot it down. The Israeli Air Force then retaliated against Syrian military targets. One Israeli jet was hit by antiaircraft fire but was able to crash in Israel. The pilots ejected safely. According to the BBC, Israel then “launched a second wave of strikes” and “inflicted huge damage on Syrian air defences.”

Original footage showing #Iranian UAV infiltrating and then shot down over Israel, and #IDF strike on Iranian command vehicle in #Syria pic.twitter.com/Sz6poAOdjc
— Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) February 10, 2018

Syria war: Assault on besieged Eastern Ghouta kills 200 in four days (BBC)

Syria war: Israel 'strikes Damascus military complex' (BBC)

Syria war: Assad's government accuses US of massacre (BBC)

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092 and will be the first in a series that depicts how the Muslim world committed cultural suicide during the Middle Ages.

Photo credit: BBC

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Mideast Week in Review

by Michael Isenberg

US Rattles Sabers in Syria.
Turkish Police Forcibly Shut Down Gay Pride Parade.

ISIS on the Ropes.

US Rattles Sabers in Syria: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday accused the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad of making preparations for a chemical attack.

The warning comes on the heels of the horrific April 4 tragedy in Khan Sheikhoun, in the northeast of the country. Approximately eighty people died, convulsing and suffocating, from what the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) subsequently determined was Sarin gas. Although government aircraft from the Shayrat airbase did conduct a strike in Khan Sheikhoun at the time, the Assad regime denied they deployed chemical weapons. The Russian Defense Ministry suggested that perhaps the airstrike had detonated Sarin weapons that the Islamists who controlled Khan Sheikhoun had stored on the ground.

Unconvinced, The US lobbed 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat, at a cost of somewhere around $60 million dollars. Despite the high price tag, they apparently had little effect, since now Mr. Spicer warns of this new attack in the wake of what he called “activities” at the airbase. Glad to see Mr. Trump is being a careful custodian of the taxpayers' dollars. Mr. Spicer threatened that if “Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”

When a few days later, no attack had occurred, the US declared victory. “It appears that they took the warning seriously,” Secretary of Defense Mattis said. I suppose that’s possible. Of course, it’s also possible that there never was a planned attack.

Statement from the Press Secretary (White House)

Syria took US chemical attack warning seriously – Mattis (BBC)

Khan Shaykhun chemical attack (Wikipedia)

Here’s how much it costs to replace the 59 Tomahawk missiles Trump fired on Syria (Market Watch)

Turkish Police Forcibly Shut Down Gay Pride Parade: This week marks the 48th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, generally considered the start of the gay rights movement. To commemorate the occasion, gay activists marched in pride parades in cities throughout the world.

But not in Istanbul.

For the third year in a row, city authorities banned the march. Some forty activists showed up anyway. Police arrested at least four of them and disbursed the rest by shooting them with rubber bullets.

Some observers see the ban as part of the Islamicization of Turkey under President Erdogan. That is certainly a concern, in light of Mr. Erdogan's Islamist roots. But as I've noted previously, so far Mr. Erdogan has been governing as an authoritarian, attacking freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary, but not particularly an Islamist.

This week also marked the trials of the eleven activists arrested at last year’s abortive march. Ironically, they were all acquitted.

ISIS on the Ropes: The Islamic State seems to be gasping its last breath, or at least its last breath in the form of a state. Coalition forces are closing in on Mosul and Raqqa, its last major strongholds in Iraq and Syria respectively. In Mosul, Iraqi forces entered the site of the al-Nuri Mosque, an 800-year-old landmark named after Saladin's one-time employer. Sadly, it is now in ruins: ISIS blew it up as it retreated. In Raqqa meanwhile, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish forces, backed by the United States, have the city surrounded.

ISIS will no doubt survive the loss of its territory, but in a different form, mutating into something more in the mold of al-Qaeda.

Syria war: US-backed forces 'surround IS in Raqqa' (BBC)

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092 and depicts the battle for the Muslim soul between those who embrace science and tolerance, and those who throw in their lot with mysticism and persecution.

Photo credits: NBC News