On February 27, 2018
© By John Arkelian
Popular protests in Syria during the ill-fated Arab Spring in 2011 turned into a bitter civil war that is still raging seven years later. It’s a pity the West failed to intervene in a meaningful way in the beginning, before things turned intractably violent. The conflict has created some abhorrent factions, including ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front – extremist groups which have too often dominated the armed opposition to the government. But, all along, the Syrian government itself has been an equally repugnant player. The ensuing conflict has killed thousands and generated millions of refugees, whose flight from their country (and from the region generally) has created a humanitarian and political crisis in the West.
Now, in February 2018, there are renewed reports of the regime’s forces bombing civilian targets and using outlawed chemical weapons. Those actions are intolerable. In response, the West should simultaneously pursue all of the following counter-measures: (1) We should attack Syrian military aircraft on the ground to degrade (and if possible destroy) their ability to continue to bomb civilian targets. (2) We should push for the indictment at the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Syria’s president (Bashar al-Assad), key members of his regime, as well as his enablers abroad in the governments of Russia and Iran and in Hezbollah (the militant group based in Lebanon). There is a glaring prima facie case against them all for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Charges should be laid by the ICC, and those responsible should be arrested and extradited to that court if they venture within the reach of the West or its allies. (3) We should pressure troublesome external players like Russia, Iran, and our own ally Turkey to get out of Syria and impose sanctions should they fail to comply. (4) We should tirelessly strive to convene peace talks and push to keep those talks in session until a solution we can live with is achieved. (5) And, if they fail to immediately cooperate by participating in peace talks, we should target the top leadership of the Assad regime for lethal ‘decapitation’ strikes.
Our justification for taking those actions (including the unilateral use of force) should be the “responsibility to protect” doctrine recognized by members of the United Nations in 2005. The Syrian regime has made war upon its own people; it has targeted civilians (and/or shown a criminally reckless disregard for their safety); it has used proscribed weapons of mass destruction; and it has wrongfully prevented humanitarian aid organizations from accessing civilian victims of the brutal conflict. For those reasons, the Syrian regime is lawless and illegitimate. For those reasons, the West has the right, and the moral obligation, to intervene.
John Arkelian is a former diplomat who has advised the federal government on international law.
Copyright © 2018 by John Arkelian.