Up to Putin
I take issue with some of the opinions in “Witnessing genocide” (Editorial, May 18).
What Syrian President Bashar Assad is doing is not genocide. It is an atrocity, but not every atrocity, even if it involves mass murder, is genocide. He is not wiping out a particular ethnic or religious group. He is murdering prisoners captured in the country’s civil war. Calling it genocide might make some people feel more strongly about it and even act against it, but I suspect that anyone in a position to do anything serious about it won’t be fooled.
Assad’s use of a crematorium to burn the bodies of his victims is deplorable. However, the crematorium is used to destroy dead bodies – the people have already been murdered. Murdering them is far worse a crime, so why be so enraged about the crematorium? Is it that it reminds you of the Nazis, of the Holocaust? If so, that’s not a good reason. If the crematorium were destroyed, would that stop the murders?
I think that neither Israel nor the United States should take action against Assad. Rather, it should be the Russians.
If Israel were to attack, it would be the best thing that could happen to the Syrian president – he would spin it and show that his war is really against Israel, and that the rebels are on Israel’s side. Given the intense antipathy toward Israel felt by virtually all sides in the conflict, such a portrayal would only weaken the resolve of the rebels.
Nearly as great is the anti-America feeling. Again, Assad would spin a US attack on him as western imperialism. This would strengthen his side and undermine the resolve of the rebels.
The Russians surely know about the murders, the crematorium, the chemical attacks and all the other atrocities. Assad would have a much harder time spinning Russian interference as something that could strengthen him and weaken his opponents. The Russians are also in a better position than Israel or the US to stop at least some of the atrocities. After all, they are already in Syria, and Assad seems dependent on them.
Would the Russians do it? Are they perhaps even committing some of the atrocities themselves? I don’t know. But perhaps President Vladimir Putin could be persuaded that he might be able to improve his image as an autocrat whose critics tend to fall off balconies and eat poisoned food.
IRA M. SCHNALL
Jerusalem