Perhaps Syrian lives are not as precious to the U.S. and its allies as those of Gaza Arabs. Or, maybe it’s just that the U.S. and its allies feel they don’t have to conduct themselves by the same standards they demand of others (read: Israel).
But late Sunday night, numerous Syrian civilians and a few militants were killed, and some wounded, as U.S.-led “precision” air strikes struck grain silos and other targets in territory controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror organization. No one said a word about it.
Aside from the fact that more civilians than militants were killed, the fact is that Syrians are in desperate need of food — and the U.S.-led forces have just deprived them of even more of it, with another harsh winter barely waiting in the wings.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, it is believed the aircraft “may have mistaken the mills and grain storage areas in the northern Syrian town of Minbej for an ISIS base.”
But that’s pretty hard to swallow, given the accuracy of satellite imagery these days. It’s certainly not an excuse the United Nations Human Rights Commission would have accepted from the Israel Defense Forces had it been offered about an attack on a Gaza target.
Which is why the IDF so carefully documented every single attack it carried out during this past summer’s counter terror Operation Protective Edge, launched to silence the incessant rocket fire from Gaza aimed at southern Israeli communities on a daily basis.
As a matter of fact, according to Observatory head Rami Abdulrahman, the strikes in Minbej appeared only to have killed civilians, Lebanon’s Daily Star reported Monday.
In eastern Syria, U.S.-led Allied forces also bombed a gas plant controlled by ISIS, outside Deir al-Zor. Several militants were wounded in the strike on the Kuniko gas plant, which feeds a power station in Homs, according to the Observatory. But the price for wounding a few militants was high: Several provinces were robbed of electricity and power for the generators that keep their oil fields going.
Of course, the news is not all bad – nothing ever is. The U.S.-led forces also hit areas of Hasaka city in the northeast, and struck the outskirts of Raqqa in the north. Raqqa is the “capital” of the ISIS territory.
But it’s important to weigh the cost against the gain.
The IDF worked hard to minimize civilian casualties ahead of every attack – making phone calls to homes in each targeted area, sending text messages to cell phones in Arabic, and dropping leaflets from aircraft into the targeted neighborhoods days in advance, warning residents to leave for their own safety.
Funny but this writer did not see any sign of such precautions being taken on behalf of civilian safety by the U.S. or its allies in the Syrian targeted areas. Or in Iraq, for that matter.
So where’s the outrage from the UNHRC? Why don’t we hear screams of empathy from the High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, declaring she will initiate an investigation into the aggressive actions of the U.S. and its allies?
I’ll tell you a little secret. You know why there’s no outrage about any of this and why everyone instead was raising Cain about Israel’s self-defense moves in Gaza?
Because the U.S. and its allies are paying Navi Pillay’s salary, and because all of them – especially together — are much bigger and wealthier than the tiny state of Israel. (Not to mention the rampant anti-Semitism that exists in the world body — and for that matter, among some in the Obama administration as well. Shhhhh….)
If the U.S. were to pull out of the United Nations, or withdraw its funding for any reason, how long could that entity continue to function?
Right. Not long at all.
Would it matter at all if Israel walked away?
I suspect much of the UN would probably throw a party – at least until they realized they would have to find their own intelligence information to deal with the threat of terror in their nations and governments. Then they might come running. But you never know.
Sometimes might does indeed outweigh right, at least when backed by the dollar.