Thoughts Interrupted: Chemical Weapons Attack and US Bombing In Syria

Background information on the chemical attack in Syria and the United States bombing that took place "near Homs at 3:45 a.m local time" [1] on April 7, 2017, is available online.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was blamed for the chemical attack that took place on or about April 4, 2017. [2] Without an investigation as to who might have been actually behind the attack, the president of the United States reacted, in this blogger's opinion, rather prematurely if, indeed, the action taken was to supposedly teach President al-Assad a lesson, and not for political gain.

In this conflict involving many different players with different and conflicting interests, there is not one side that is on God's side.  Has the Son of God ever resolved a conflict with the killing of an enemy despite having many?

The seemingly never-ending conflicts in the Mideast are too complex for this blogger to analyze in detail.  What is interesting was the attack in a St. Petersburg, Russia, subway station on or about April 3, 2017, for which nobody officially claimed responsibility, even though it was "Isis supporters [that cheered] the attack in St Petersburg that killed at least 10 people." [3]  If Russia's continual bombings in Syria have been unsuccessful in containing ISIL, then why would ISIL supporters terrorize Russian citizens in St. Petersburg "while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was in St Petersburg – his home town"? [4]

Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that ISIL does not like Russia's involvement in Syria, nor, on the contrary, does its neighbors want the conflict in Syria to ever end, so that ISIL would spend all of its resources there and not expand its presence to other countries in the area.  Hypothetically speaking, if President Trump were to carry out his original intent to join forces with Russia to eliminate ISIL in Syria, ISIL would drop Syria and leave fairly quickly.  Does anyone think ISIL would prevail when the world's two most powerful military forces join together in a mission to destroy it?

This blogger thinks that President Bashar al-Assad wants Syria back for Syrians, including Syrian Catholics who lived relatively freely and peacefully before an invasion took place under the Obama administration for reasons that are not entirely clear to those that are ignorant and powerless (this blogger included), mystifying them, especially when the then Commander-in Chief was a Chicago Law School professor with a Harvard law degree [5], who was supposedly an individual with deep understanding and compassion, an advocate of diversity and tolerance and a champion for peace.  History has proven otherwise, and in comparison to Bashar al-Assad, it is not definitive that he is so much better a statesman and an individual than al-Assad. By no means is this blogger implying that Bashar al-Assad is a saint; he most surely is not, nor is anyone who is in power; nonetheless, this blogger thinks that Bashar al-Assad has been made a scapegoat in the use of chemical weapons [6], and Syria has been turned into a theater in which ISIL battles the rest of the world.

It is sad to see people suffer, and die without having an opportunity to live, regardless of which side of a conflict they are on and what religious beliefs they may have, especially when such sufferings can stop if only man wills it to stop, unlike sufferings brought upon unexpectedly by illnesses and by Mother Nature.  This blogger has never really understood the need for war, when anyone, anywhere in the world, can be a friend, for friendship is based on common interests and loyalty, on mutual respect, on fairness and compassion and on a smile, and every human understands all that innately, which means that all people come from God, a God Who is all good.



[1] http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/07/syria-airstrikes-international-community-reacts-to-us-bombing-airfield.html
[2] http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/chemical-attack-syria-170404195457304.html
[3] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/st-petersburg-attacks-isis-russia-bombings-celebrate-islamic-state-response-a7664656.html
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/03/st-petersburg-metro-rocked-by-explosion-sennaya-ploshchad-station
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
[6] Bashar al-Assad is not losing and it is not critical that chemical weapons be used to prevail in the current conflict by killing 72 people and injuring more than 550 [see [2] above], considering that he could anticipate the next day's news headlines and could probably take more lives by dropping a number of conventional bombs in which case the world could not say anything since bombing people to death seems to be an acceptable and a humanitarian way to invade a sovereign country and cause collateral injuries these days.