I have not been writing about the situation in Syria much recently because the media, after a year of ignoring the slaughter of civilians by the Assad regime, has finally been covering the fighting there. Today brings news, however, that needs to be highlighted. On Firday, Assad forces stormed a Palestinian refugee camp in the Damascus area. There were many casualties. Some estimates put the dead at nearly 200 with many more wounded. These are not rebel forces; they are, for the most part, residents of the area who were in the homes when the Syrian army attacked. The dead were Sunni Moslems while the main support for Assad comes from the Shiite community in Syria. For decades, we have heard Assad lament the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. Israeli arabs can vote, move where they please within the country and carry on normal lives. The Palestinians in Syria are kept in camps separate from other Syrians, they cannot participate in the government, they may not move around the country and their lives are highly regulated by the government. Indeed, Assad now makes clear that he is prepared to kill innocent Palestinians indiscriminately if he might pick off one or two of the rebels who opposed his regime.
Also in Syria on Friday, government forces sent artillery shells into a village in neighboring Iraq, killing a 7 year old girl among others. Iraq has not taken any action in response to this attack.
What we see in Syria is a man who will do anything needed to keep power. So far about 25,000 Syrians are dead due to Assad's actions. To put that in context, that is more than four times the number of American dead in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It is the same percentage of the population as if close to 400,000 people had been killed in America. Assad is a mad man. He deserves to be removed from power by the civilized world.
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