Letter to the Editor / KILLING SYRIAN CIVILIANS

Roger C. Kostmayer

All international efforts to stop the five years of genocide in Syria have failed and the number of innocent women, children and elderly killed or mutilated exceeds 500,000 while the lives of millions of others have been destroyed and Europe is in crisis due to the flood of desperate families fleeing Syria.  The primary reason the world is transfixed and seems unable to stop the horror is that President Assad is being propped up militarily by Russia and has no incentive to step down or negotiate.  Expressed differently, the world is stymied by the lack of a perfect long term strategic solution and is timid about anything that might lead to involvement in the Middle East.

The goals of the US and our 66 international allies are twofold:  Destroy Daesh/ISIS; and stop the Syrian civil war so the killing stops, Assad leaves and negotiations produce a transitional solution.  The US and the world community can do better and, though difficult, the goals aren’t mutually exclusive.  Though not a perfect long term solution, the US, UN and our allies could use rockets and drones to crater Assad’s airports, destroy his bombers, create safe zones and impose no-fly zones as necessary to provide medical and survival services – while also destroying ISIS.

It’s fair to ask “What then?” and the answer is that millions of lives will be saved with a high probability that our goals will be advanced and the ME must help solve ME problems over the long term.