After a weekend of reports indicating that the U.S. is considering military action as a response to a devastating chemical weapons attack in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Monday the U.S. is still “consider[ing] our response” to the Syrian crisis, indicating with little doubt that there will, in fact, be one: “This international norm cannot be violated without consequences,” he said. Any U.S. response, he added, would be “grounded in facts, informed by conscience, and guided by common sense.”
In a forceful speech at the State Department, Kerry made it absolutely clear that the U.S. is certain that a chemical weapons attack took place in Syria last week, and that the Assad regime was behind it. Those attacks, Kerry said, “def[y] any code of morality,” calling the action “a moral obscenity…by any standard, it is inexcusable.” He added: “there is a clear reason that the world has banned entirely the use of chemical weapons…there is a reason why President Obama has made it such a priority to stop the proliferation of these weapons.”
Speaking about the evidence of the attacks — images and videos of the dead — Kerry said: “I went back and I watched the videos…one more gut wrenching time… it is hard to express in words the human suffering they lay out before us.” Addressing Russia, perhaps, Kerry said that anyone denying the attacks could occur needed to “check their moral compass.”
The international community stepped up its rhetoric against Syria last week after what was almost certainly a chemical weapons attack killed hundreds near Damascus. Despite denials from the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, pretty much everyone believes that the attack happened, and that the Assad regime was behind it. Only Russia is buying the Assad regime’s story that any alleged attack could have come from the opposition forces in the country. Russia’s continued support of the Assad regime has long stalled any possibility of the U.N. Security Council (on which the country has veto power) taking meaningful action against the ongoing Syrian conflict that killed over 100,000 people so far.
(AP)
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6 Responses
Should know about destroying evidence; just like the IRS, the benghazi incident and NSA
At the risk of sounding terrible (and saying what everyone is thinking!), let the Syrians kill each other out. No great loss.
everyone knows how to spell russia
reish shin ayin
Like my grandfather used to say “zol zei beider matzliach zein”.
Somehow when they kill over 100,000 people the “moral compass” of Kerry and Obama doesn’t seem to move much but use chemical weapons and that’s too much. Stupid Syrians; they could have killed another 100,000 conventionally and America wouldn’t have done anything instead they went for chemicals and they’re about to get bombed.
Remember the last time we heard about chemical attacks and went to war. Where are the “peace activists” and anti-war crowd now? The liberal Jews are too busy protesting Israel to care about this situation.