According to the latest reports from Syria, there have now been 2,700 people killed for taking part in peaceful protests against the regime of Bashir al Assad. In the last few days alone, 3000 people have been jailed in the town of Rastan in the central part of the country. Some of those detained have taken part in the protests while others were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Before moving into Rastan to begin the roundup of prisoners, the Syrian military shelled the town for five days.
To put this in context, the total number of American military dead in the Afghanistan war which has now lasted for ten years is currently 1718 according to icasualties.org which tracks the number. That's right, 50% more people have been killed in Syria in six months for protesting than have died fighting for the USA in Afghanistan in ten years.
To date, there still has been no serious response from president Obama to the ongoing slaughter in Syria. We have heard the occasional reference to Syria in speeches. The US has "deplored" the killings. America has imposed toothless sanctions which have no effect on syria or its government. But that's it. Nothing more!
Syria is the main ally of Iran in the arab world. Were the Assad regime to fall in Syria it would cut off the Iranian backed terrorists of Hezbollah and, to a lesser extent, Hamas. It would give the pro-democracy forces in Lebanon the chance to regain the initiative in that country. I would close one of the main avenues of infiltration into Iraq. But Obama does nothing. When crazy Gaddafi in Libya killed far fewer of his people, it gave rise to bombing by NATO and major discussion about how the USA could not stand by while a government killed its own people just for demonstrating.
The truth is that Obama either cannot or will not recognize what is happening. The chance to take down a dangerous anti-American force and undermine the position of Iran in the middle east in a major way exists, but Obama just ignores it. What a loser!
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