Editorial: Syrian chemical weapons must be destroyed

Photo: SCANPIX

It is no easy task to choose sides in the Syrian civil war. By US president Barack Obama himself, use of chemical weapons was declared the red line; now, however, that the line has been crossed, he has opted to seek broader support for attacking the forces of the Syrian regime.

For the Western world, the choice is of extreme complexity, posing an awesome mess of interests and factors both legal and moral. Probably, the line was drawn at chemical weapons with the hope that Bashār al-Asad would avoid using such a device, mainly harming civilians; secondly, it was to justify why no earlier attempts were made to intervene in the all too bloody civil war.

Now the use of CW and the more than thousand deaths are a fact. Public information available, so far, points to the chemical attack as carried out by forces commanded by Bashār al-Asad. At the same time, it cannot be completely ruled out that the attack was an attempt by some rebel grouping to provoke the West into war. Still, the latter version is hard indeed to believe, considering the circumstances.

The question of whether, when exactly and how to attack the Syrian governmental forces for using CW on their own citizens probably poses the hardest issues the US president Barack Obama has ever faced in his time in office. Now, he has directed decision-making to Congress, with the vote supposed to happen next Monday. Considering the reactions by USA’s allies and the domestic differences, one may understand the desire for support as broad as possible. During the week to come, the UN report by experts sent to Syria ought to be completed as well, hopefully with added clarity for global public at large.

To attack or not to attack? Assuming it were the government forces that did the CW attack, a forceful Western response is a necessity. For the very reason of avoiding future attack of the kind, thus protecting the civilians. Even so, the option of Syria’s large CW storage falling into rebel hands is far from desirable.

In the mind of a military expert consulted by Postimees, it would be preferable – in this conflict of two opposing parties – to attack the units capable of using CW, as when hitting the storages civilian casualties would be impossible to avoid. At the same time, sufficient numbers of expert officers have defected to the rebel side, allowing these also to skilfully use CW. Destroying Syria’s chemical weapons storage by air strikes makes sense politically and is militarily doable. Doable despite the fact that al-Asad now has a whole week on his hands to relocate the storage.