Obama, Syria and the townspeople of Auschwitz
I dread what is about to happen. But there are times when evil is such that countering it justifies risk to the townspeople next door.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the townspeople of Auschwitz. The people who lived down the road from the extermination works. The people who lived close enough to smell the cloud that rose from the ovens that the bodies of the gassed were shoved into.
Maybe they looked at the skies, wondering when the American air force would come to bomb the railroad tracks that led to the camp, in order to interrupt, if only temporarily, the business of genocide as usual.
The townspeople of Auschwitz must have thought a lot about what would happen to them if they said anything, if they did anything. And what would happen to them if they kept on doing nothing.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the townspeople of Auschwitz, in particular because innocent people are being gassed to death next door.
Here in the Holy Land, the genocide in Syria has made all of us, Israelis and Palestinians both, into the townspeople of Auschwitz. We are uncertain how to help, if to help.
We know that if the Americans bomb, there is every chance that innocent lives will be lost. We know that if the Americans bomb, we could become targets as well, and some of those innocent lives could be ours. But we know something else as well.
The world has changed since Auschwitz. There is still genocide, but the immediacy and universality of communications have made mass murder a lot harder for the murderers to hide, and a lot harder for the rest of us to hide from.
At this point, “the rest of us” is everyone. At this point, the world as a whole bears witness to the increasingly horrifying and altogether intentional murder of innocent civilians as a principal weapon of warfare, and as a tool to shore up a dictatorship whose brutality no longer has a rival on this planet.
At this point, no matter where we are in this world, we are all the townspeople of Auschwitz.
President Obama no longer has the option of doing nothing. Not only because a year ago he warned of “enormous consequences” were Syria to use chemical weapons, and because U.S. inaction could be seen by Assad and others as an invitation to further crimes against humanity.
And not only because Syria is believed to hold the world’s third largest stockpile of chemical weapons, after the U.S. and Russia.
President Obama needs to act because doing nothing in Syria has made all that is bad there, worse. Everything the U.S. said it wished to avoid, commentator Hussein Ibish has written, “an intensification of the conflict, a refugee and humanitarian crisis, increasing sectarian hatred, atrocities on both sides, a spread of the war into bordering countries, and the rise of extremist Al Qaida style groups among the rebels—have all been not only not prevented by relative American inaction. They have been promoted by it.”
Fundamentally, President Obama needs to act on the Syrian tragedy because if he does not, no one else will.
Many people of moral intelligence and sensitivity have questioned why America waited to act in Syria until a murderous Assad regime used chemical weapons, or why the U.S. military response should be confined to an effort to contain Syria’s chemical arsenal.
Acknowledging the horrendous nature of chemical weapons and the issue of U.S. credibility, author Peter Beinart asked on MSNBC this week “Is it really worse to kill people this way, than to kill them some other way? A hundred thousand people in Syria have died, and we’re going to go to war because 1,000 were killed with chemical weapons?”
One answer is because injury and death at the hands of nerve gases like Sarin are qualitatively more monstrous and vastly more terrifying than the already intolerable horrors of what we have come to call conventional armaments.
They are called weapons of mass destruction not only for their quantitative effect, but because their potential for causing suffering to human beings is unimaginable.
Like Auschwitz.
The more uncomfortable answer, however, is that for an expected American offensive to have significance, it should be accompanied by steps like intelligent and earnest support for such opposition groups as Salim Ideris’ Free Syrian Army, an alternative both to the Assad dynasty and to Al-Qaida, which seeks to supplant it.
Americans are justly wary of stepping into yet another gaping Big Muddy, this one with countless potential hazards and pitfalls, among them backlash from Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, and revenge attacks against Israel.
But there are times when evil is such that countering it justifies risk to the townspeople next door.
I dread what’s about to happen. But as one of the townspeople, I believe that this is one of those times.
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WarSclerotic 
August 29, 2013 at 6:34 PM
Real sorry for disturbing some good people here – really – but, accordingly to Rotter, tonight is the night. Quoting its very own sources, the famous scoop Hebrew site is asserting that this night, between 3 PM – 6AM the show will begin.
Usually, I also bring my opinion here related to Rotter news, but this time I wont. They might be right with a high degree of probability.
And now, ”for something (not) completely different” : I just saw a ”surrealist” interview on my tv, on CNN, if I’m not wrong. Some big shot from Cyprus was answering to some incredible questions from the anchor, like it will be an attack, when it will be, stuff like that. And what do you think? The big shot answered the man with the questions, without even moving his lips : yes, we’ll have an attack on Syria in ”a few days”. Pretty weird stuff. It seems to us that we’ll have some action in Syria – and may be beyond – after all. Western forces – especially Britain – are using Cyprus as a military base of operations, so ”The Man From Cyprus” just might have told the truth.
August 29, 2013 at 6:53 PM
It’s the Syrian army who says this time. What the fuck do they know?
August 29, 2013 at 7:58 PM
The Cyprus Foreign Minister answered pretty clare to that question: the attack will be in the next few days. It seems that something is really cooking up faster than I thought.
August 29, 2013 at 7:58 PM
Yeah but there’s also a lot of junky hot scoops in Rotter which turn out to be false. One has to check up in the follow-up comments there to see what stems from an authentic source and what not.
Hmmm fireworks between 3:00 and 6:00 you say?
August 29, 2013 at 8:19 PM
I’m a little confused about the times. When you say between 3:00 and 6:00, what time and day is that for us here in Louisiana?
August 29, 2013 at 8:29 PM
I think I got it…that attack could start in say, 7 – 10 hours?
August 29, 2013 at 8:36 PM
Ok, its 1:34pm here. 7 hours difference in than the times posted by JW’s program. So I assume we are already in the 3pm to 6am timeframe…correct Luis?
August 29, 2013 at 11:00 PM
OK, I see the problem. Luis said 3PM to 6AM. The article says 3AM to 6AM.
August 29, 2013 at 8:06 PM
Good article which tells what should be done.
Many good articles by many goodhearted people have been written.
But in the end Obavez will not do the morally right thing.
Neither will he do what is good for America, the West, Israel or the Syrian people.
In the end obavez will do what is good vor obavez.
August 29, 2013 at 10:39 PM
I think people are pushing back against Obama- starting with the Brits. The republicans in the US House are also pushing back. This is not a popular move and it may stop everything in its tracks.
I’m not ready for WWIII. I’m hoping they succeed. Yes, what happened and what we saw is horrible- but I don’t want the mass murder to spread to the rest of the world.
August 29, 2013 at 10:59 PM
I’ll tell you what. This is not an American job. Really and without being cynical. At least, not today’s America. Britain? Don’t kill me laughing. Lets not start that Briton thing again, someone here may lose it. France? With Hollande ( of France of course )? He is still recovering from Mali effort. Then, who must do here the whole job?
Who is supposed to clean the Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah mess? Where is all this trash, at what door is it laying? Who is under their constant threats and now they even made good of a part of those threats, proving that they will use WMD with impunity and without fear of been punished? Who is that power that, finally will have to deliver?
That power, which in fact is a tiny country but with a great heart, yes, that power is Israel. The moment of truth is near and Israel will rise one more time to defend its people.
August 29, 2013 at 11:05 PM
I think the U.S. and the rest of the West should follow Israel’s example. Stay out of other people’s wars. Don’t mettle in other people’s affairs. Attack only when attacked. Maintain a strong defense. Let everyone know in no uncertain terms to leave us the f*ck alone. Now that’s the kind of policy I can support.
August 29, 2013 at 11:22 PM
We don’t ”Attack only when attacked”. We are the masters of the preemptive strike on an enemy who is preparing itself against us.
Israel is the only black chess player who starts first.
August 29, 2013 at 11:11 PM
You guys better get cracking then, the Islamic tsunami is building and it has plans to fall right on your head!
August 29, 2013 at 11:24 PM
Hard to do when you have a President who is a Muslim. There, I said it. That’s right…a Muslim!
August 29, 2013 at 11:30 PM
Oops…maybe you were responding to Luis? Oh well, I still stand by what I said….President Barack Hussein Sotero Obama and his ““There is no god except Allah” ring.
August 29, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Israel sends warnings through Russians…..
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=11671
Threats facing Israel….
August 30, 2013 at 12:33 AM
Media reporting that Obama is having a conference call this evening with members of Congress concerning Syria. It is an unclassified briefing. Makes me think that Rotter is correct about the attack starting this evening. The English Parliament did not approve their participation.
August 30, 2013 at 1:01 AM
We always read Israeli and Mid East news, and we want to say to all the innocent people of Israel, and any innocent people living in surrounding countries around Israel we pray that you will be safe, and not injured or killed.
August 30, 2013 at 12:59 AM
England votes no to strike on Syria. Obama’s screwed and frankly Israel so are you. England’s Winston never would have let this happen. Israel’s did!
How long did Netanyau think he could keep his finger in the dike and manipulate events?
August 30, 2013 at 2:07 AM
Should Obama fold his cards the Middle East is fucked. CW will be flying like snow. If Obama attacks, now in a weakend position all Hell will break out over Israel. So Fucken predictable. The curses used are from pure frustration!!!!!
August 30, 2013 at 4:09 AM
No problemo with the cursing, JP. I think we all feel frustrated.
August 30, 2013 at 4:20 AM
Nothing yet and there’s less than 2 hours to go. Obama is still scratching his head (or something else).
August 30, 2013 at 4:44 AM
Netanyau coalition will come under great pressure!
“There were chaotic scenes in Haifa, where an estimated four thousand people lined up from 6am outside the city’s sports arena which had been designated as a main regional distribution centre after riots had broken out at small collecting points the day before.”
August 30, 2013 at 4:56 AM
I think it was the right thing to do, considering. The stakes are too high and Russia is willing to throw down for Syria.
Israel will still respond with overwhelming force should Assad be insane enough to attack with CW- but it will not justify a Russian retaliation should it had been initiated solely by Assad and not in response to an attack.
August 30, 2013 at 5:12 AM
And what of Iran israel, what wonderful plans do you have for them.
You waited too long! Its going to all come tumbling down on your heads. To cute by half. I surly hope God saves your bacon cause you sure screwed things up.