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The Red Line: A Rallying Cry For A Reluctant Battle

Aaron Liu |
September 2, 2013 | 8:31 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Chemical weapons have become a reality in Syria for months. (Photo from FreedomHouse/Creative Commons)
Chemical weapons have become a reality in Syria for months. (Photo from FreedomHouse/Creative Commons)
Chemical warfare was a reality for the Syrian crisis long before last week's attack in Damascus, which prompted the U.S. to consider a military strike.

Since December, President Barack Obama repeatedly held out on enforcing his "red line" against chemical weapons and continued to do so through Monday as he waited for congressional approval. 

The red line amounted to a failed promise — if the U.S. intervened based on its current rationale, it should have intervened months earlier when the international community first detected sarin gas.

Meanwhile, a red line rationale marginalized the bulk of what was happened throughout the crisis. By prescribing international intervention only in the event of a chemical weapons attack, outside players could conveniently neglect the other atrocities that rocked the region. 

The U.S., France and the U.K. all confirmed several instances of sarin-gas use in the Syrian Civil War as early as March. The U.S. first observed the mobilization of these weapons back in December. None of these incidents led to military intervention beyond increasing military aid to the Syrian opposition and giving stern warnings to the Syrian regime. In other words, the Syrian government crossed the threshold repeatedly and faced no potential repercussions until now. 

The U.S. estimated nearly 1,500 people died August 21 in the chemical gas attack aimed at the suburbs of Damascus. Prior to the attack, the U.S. estimated around a hundred people died from chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 people died overall throughout the Syrian conflict, many of whom succumbed to indiscriminate shelling, air raids and firefights. These killing methods didn't trigger any sort of international ultimatum for intervention.

The red line defined the rules of engagement for the international community with the Syrian conflict. But by drawing the line at chemical weapons, international players ignored dolling out consequences for the bulk of the violence. 

As Haji Mara, a commander in the Free Syrian Army, told VICE:

...the slaughterhouses are filled with infants and women, who are killed every day and they [the international community] remain silent. But the red line is the chemical weapons. It means: 'Bashar, whatever you want to do, go ahead and do it.' If you kill a hundred thousand people, that's not a problem. You're dropping a hundred thousand kilos from planes, that's not a problem either. They're giving him the green light.

If the U.S. intervened at this stage of the Syrian conflict, what would it be fighting for? The New York Times speculated Obama's proposed "shot across the bow" approach wanted to stomp out Syria's ability to use chemical weapons but not its ability to commit a litany of other atrocities:

He says he is intervening to stop the use of a specific weapon whose use in World War I shocked the world. But he is not intervening to stop the mass killing, or to remove the man behind those attacks.

Obama wanted a limited military strike that didn't involve "boots on the ground." He tossed the issue to Congress for its approval, which meant nothing considering he couold override its decision. In the case of Libya, that was what happened.

Chemical warfare amounted to only a small portion of the horror that went on in Syria every day. Yet this slice of reality — a reality which persisted for months — became the rallying cry for a reluctant battle for a reluctant president.

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