What took you so long?
Op-ed: World remained silent when 120,000 Syrians were killed by conventional weapons
More than two years have passed since the Syrian protest movement launched its activity. More than 120,000 people died during that time. Unfortunately, the international community and human rights movements remained silent.
Over the recent days, after Assad used chemical weapons against civilians, several politicians made diplomatic announcements on the issue.
The US president noted that the Syrian government has crossed a red line. Bashar Assad 's regime initiated the assassination of citizens, including children, since January 2011. What does it matter what assassination strategy brings about the killing of people?
What is the difference between murder by a kitchen knife, a bullet, a rope or poisonous gas?
Massacre, in whatever form it may be executed, is crossing a red line.
There is injustice in considering the death of hundreds of people by use of chemical weapon as crossing a red line while regarding the massacre of over 100,000 people by conventional weapon to lay within the boundaries of the "green line."
The international community's lack of response so far can stem from two possible reasons.
The first is that according to questionable international norms the Syrian government has the right to take action against the opposition during a civil war.
If the international community were to retaliate against Assad's oppressive policy, we would be able to prevent mass murder and uprooting of millions of Syrian citizens.
The second reason is tied to Syria's allies – Iran, China and Russia. Russia is known to stand against the United States on every international issue. China's role in the game isn't clear. The big winner is therefore Iran.
Caspian Makan, Neda Agha Soltan (Archive: Yedioth Ahronoth)
The continued war in Syria has overshadowed the Iranian regime's oppressive policies and diverted international attention from the issue of Iran's nuclear program. It presented a golden opportunity to for the Islamic regime to support Assad by delivering soldiers and weapon to Syria.
This has been an inseparable part of the Iranian regime's global inhumane policy, and one could say the Iranian government is more dangerous than a nuclear bomb is.
Caspian Makan is an Iranian author and human rights activist. He was the partner of Neda Agha Soltan, who was murdered by Iranian security forces during 2009 protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's election win. The piece was published in Yedioth Ahronoth.
