A People Being Murdered & Our Governments Issue Statements

Syria is falling apart. The government is murdering its people, heavy weaponry designed to be used on heavily fortified bunkers and armoured vehicles are being used on unarmed civilians. Children are dying daily, people flee across the border, abandoning everything they own in fear for their lives and the UN Security Council issues this statement

"The security council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more … in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood," the non-binding statement said.

I am not particularly political, I don’t really watch the news as much of it is dominated by Jordan and X-Factor but this sickens me. We (the UK and other “western” allies) invaded Iraq to depose a dictator and stop atrocities. We intervened in Afghanistan and are in the process of installing a democratically elected government. We supported the revolution in Libya with Air Strikes and special forces.

So what is so different this time?

First off lets clarify the above statement issued by the UN. It is referred to as “non-binding”. In law this is referred to as Obiter Dictum and is Latin for a statement "said in passing". Unlike the rationes decidendi, obiter dicta are not the subject of the judicial decision, even if they happen to be correct statements of law. Under the doctrine of stare decisis, statements constituting obiter dicta are therefore not binding.

So basically it is a bit of media fluff to make the UN sound good. It has no actual effect and just sets the tone.

Now we look at how long this has been happening.

March, 2011

First protests in response to a Facebook call for a "Day of Dignity." The regime cracks down on protests in Damascus, Banias in the northwest and the southern town of Daraa, the cradle of the protests where activists say 100 are killed on the 23rd. Deadly violence also in Latakia in the northwest.

 
April
The regime vows to suppress what it calls an "armed revolt" by "Salafist groups." The protests spread and strengthen, with calls for the fall of the regime.

June

The army deploys near Iraq and near the borders with Turkey and then Lebanon.
 
July
More than one million people demonstrate, notably in the central town of Hama and Deir Ezzor in the east. On the 31st, 100 people are killed in a major army offensive in Hama.
 
August
US President Barack Obama and Western allies call on Assad to step down. Western and Arab countries later impose successive rounds of sanctions on the regime.
 
November

Army defectors, members of the Free Syrian Army, attack a military intelligence base near Damascus.
 
February, 2012
China and Russia veto a resolution condemning the repression at the UN Security Council, the second time they have done so.

The Arab League decides to provide political and material support to the opposition and calls for a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping mission, after their new plan calling for Assad to transfer powers to his deputy is rejected.

Two Western journalists, from the US and France, killed in shelling in the flashpoint city of Homs, after a French journalist was killed there in January. Two more, from Britain and France, are seriously wounded.
 
Arab and Western nations meet in Tunisia for the first "Friends of Syria" meeting. They recognise main opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council (SNC) as "a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change."
 
A referendum on a new constitution takes place, but is mocked by the opposition and the West. The regime has regularly announced reforms which have been followed by intensified repression.
 
March
Regime forces seize the Baba Amr district of Homs after 27 days of relentless shelling and a ground assault. The SNC urges international intervention to stop a "potential massacre." The UN's Human Rights Council calls on Syria to allow aid agencies "free and unimpeded" access to those caught up in the bloodshed.
 
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos visits and says the Syrian protest city of Homs had been "completely devastated".
 
Syria's deputy oil minister resigns, becoming the most senior official to join the rebel ranks.
 
The army launches an assault in the northwestern province of Idlib, on the eve of a first visit by new international envoy Kofi Annan. Some 10 high-ranking army officers, including four generals, defect from the army and arrive in Turkey.
 
Annan ends two-day visit to Syria, leaving with no deal in sight but says he has presented Assad with "concrete proposals" to halt the unrest, as fighting rages across the country. Monitors say more than 120 people have been killed Saturday and Sunday.

So now that we know the current situation regarding the UN’s position and also the fact that the Syrian Government has been killing its people since March 2011 (estimated by the UN to be 8000) we ask ourselves why haven’t we intervened yet?

I’m going to offer up some facts. See the table below:

Global Oil Production

Postion	Country/State	Production barrels per day	% of world production
29	Australia	589,200	0.70%
—	Alaska	572,000[4]	0.65%
—	California	537,000[4]	0.61%
30	Ecuador	485,700	0.58%
—	Central Java	475,000	0.54%
—	North Dakota	419,000[4]	0.48%
31	Syria	400,400	0.48%
32	Thailand	380,000	0.45%
33	Equatorial Guinea	346,000	0.41%

So why hasn't the so called "civilised" world intervened militarily in this conflict. Why are we allowing a government to continue using its military power to suppress its people, restrict their freedom of speech and murder children while we issue non-binding statements.

Further food for thought:

• Iraq has the worlds largest proven oil reserves with more than 350 billion barrels. We intervened because of weapons of mass destruction which, after 10 years of occupation we never found
• Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa and the fifth largest in the world at 76.4 billion barrels.
• Syria is 31st in global oil production and only represents 0.48% of global production

What do you think!