Could Chemical Weapon attacks (CWAs) become an addling element in the Syrian conflict?

Could Chemical Weapon attacks (CWAs) become an addling element in the Syrian conflict?

Julian Castano

Retrieved from The New York Times 

In this piece, I would like to motivate the question of whether ‘extraordinary’ atrocious events during conflict could deter us from engaging critically with the quotidian elements of war which, are or at least should be, as condemnable as the former. I will begin with a brief description of the latest CWA in Douma, its aftermath and then I will continue with my argument.  

In the eve of April 7^th, 2018, the shelling that has become part of the audio-visual landscape in Eastern Goutha was carrying something more than its usual destruction and dust. Soon after the banging noises ceased, families that were hiding in the overcrowded basements of buildings started to emerge feeling asphyxiated, some of them collapsing to the ground convulsing, people yelled GAS and panic took over. Later that night, heart-breaking videos (warning: distressing images) proliferated the net with piles of lifeless civilians (many of whom were women and children) that were not able to exit the buildings, some of them having foam bubbling of their nostrils and mouths. Another CWA is suspected to have occurred in Syria.

Taken from Reuters

According to the Violations Documentation Center (VDC) in Syria, three sites were reported to have been attacked by the Syrian army on that day. The first two attacks, Saada Bakery and Martyr’s Square, were suspected of carrying CWs, the last attack was directed to Douma’s Red Crescent Centre destroying the last ambulances available in the area. The VDC condemned such acts and reported that, according to doctors, the surviving victims emanated a strong Chlorine scent and that the convulsion and foam were not consistent with chlorine intoxication but of poison affecting the nerves, they suspected Sarin was also present.

Retrieved from Al Jazeera

Image from VDC 

Two days after the attack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) decided to deploy a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) to corroborate the use of CWs. OPCW reports state that they arrived at Damascus on the 14^th and only got to access to the sites on the 25^th. It was also noted that on the 16^th, the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) ‘team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated’ when trying to access one of the sites. No conclusive reports have yet been made public and the attribution question will not be addressed.

Taken from The New Yorker

Image from Reuters

It was also on the 14^th that the US, France and UK decided (in the words of Theresa May as reported in Reuters) to ‘conduct co-ordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability and deter their use.’ Three sites suspected of storing/fabricating CWs were attacked, (a very successful mission according to Donald Trump) however, such flash intervention faced criticism from UK and France parliaments and raised questions of its legality.

Taken from The Guardian

These developments have produced outraging comments around the world, Human Rights Watch chief Keneth Roth have been one of the most prominent organisations in condemning Douma’s CWA as a crime against humanity and therefore punishable within the framework for atrocity crimes. Others have accused the Syrian regime and its allies of stalling investigations in order to tamper with evidence while Syrian and Russian officials qualified the whole footage suggesting a CWA as fake news. 

The hidden danger

Among all those comments little have been said about another worrying aspect, one that sits in the periphery but is always present when scandalous episodes occur within conflicts. Such aspect being that, atrocious acts in war can tacitly make us set aside, if not forget, other acts that may seem less confronting in comparison; it is as though the bar had been raised so high that everything below it losses some of the power to mobilise opinion and runs the risk of not being properly acknowledged and condemned. 

This ‘addling effect’ can immediately be seen in what followed after the attacks of April the 7^th. Much have been said about the CWA in Douma; accusations of possible perpetrators, repudiation of the high level of civilian casualties, the possibility of the presence of nerve agents, the stalling manoeuvres by the regime and its allies, and so the list continues. All these accusations have been directed to the events that occurred in Saada Bakery and Martyr’s Square. However, since the attack to the Red Crescent Centre was not suspected of involving CWs, it has slowly faded into the periphery, despite the fact of being an attack on a health providing facility and that the destruction of ambulances have substantially reduced the capacity to provide assistance in the area.

To be sure, I am not saying that nothing had been said about the Red Crescent Centre, my point is that most of the international focus and the actions being taken by NGO’s have been directed to the issue regarding the CWA in Douma. The danger lies in the fact situations like the one of the Red Crescent Centre can be seen as part and parcel of the normal effects of wars in general or be forgotten altogether. This is an issue that has preoccupied scholars like Elizabeth Dauphinée who argues that war crime trials legitimise the practice of war more generally and Jamie Jhonson who warns us of the implications of wartime scandals as a reproduction of the status quo instead of an avenue for challenging the act of war altogether. Nonetheless, we need to see more of these views being pushed within the public eye if we want to problematize violent conflicts in their totality.  

Fortunately, there are people like Moustafa Bayoumi form the Guardian, that are contributing to bringing these ideas to the public eye. In his analysis of the retaliation by US, France and UK, he concludes: 

‘Rather than limiting war, this latest bombing of Syria normalizes the war’s ongoing brutality. Forget the chemical weapons for a moment. The bombing of Syria by the western powers essentially and unconscionably establishes near total warfare on civilians as an acceptable “international norm”. Our politicians will wallow in their most recent action, calling the bombing a great success for our civilization. In fact, it’s much more akin to our demise’.

Perhaps only when the conflict ends we will see if events like the CWA in Douma can sway judgement away from other acts of war, the important thing is, however, that there is danger these acts carry, one that we should all be aware of.