Calls for Restraint Rise as US/NATO Push for "Illegal" War in Syria

As all signs indicate a growing push for Western military intervention—war, that is—in Syria, have the U.S. and its “more than willing” coalition of NATO allies done anything to enact or facilitate a diplomatic solution?

And amid calls for missile strikes and possible air assaults against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the wake of possible use of chemical weapons, has there been adequate consideration of the  further violence and bloodshed that such attacks are likely to cause?

For many, the answer to both questions: No.

Over the weekend, the Assad government acquiesced to demands to give UN inspectors access to the site outside Damascus where a suspected chemical gas attack took place last week. However, Western governments were quick to rebuff the gesture, saying that it was “too late” and claiming that their own intelligence—though offering little insight or details to how they achieved it—left “little doubt” that government forces were behind the attack.

“Here’s the core question now, in regard to Syria: if it’s true that President Bashar al-Assad’s government used poison gas in an incident that killed hundreds of people, at least, in the suburbs of Damascus, can the United States avoid military action in response? The answer is: yes. And it should.” –Bob Dreyfuss, The Nation

As The Independent reported on Monday, “Western countries, including Britain, are planning to take unilateral military action against the Assad regime within two weeks in retaliation” for the alleged attack.

Across corporate media outlets and cable news channels on Monday, talk about U.S. missile strikes—most likely from U.S. battleships stationed in the Mediterranean Sea—were being discussed as an almost “foregone conclusion.” Citing high-level talks at the White House and between Washington and its European allies over the weekend, reports indicated events are moving rapidly toward a NATO-driven coalition military assault on Syria, similar to that done to Libya in 2011 or Sarajevo in the 1990s.

As was reported by numerous outlets, it is likely that this coalition—led by the U.S., France, and Britain—would not be looking for support or official sanction at the UN due to the assumption that Russia—a permanent member of the Security Council—would veto any effort to authorize an assault.

On Monday, Russia all but conceded that assumption and said that any military attack on Syria by Western nations would be both a “catastrophe” for the region and a violation of international law.

“Using force without the approval of the UN Security Council is a very grave violation of international law,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Monday, saying military strikes would put coalition countries on “a very dangerous path, a very slippery path.”

Lavrov continued, warning that strikes would deepen Syria’s conflict, creating more violence, not less. “This is not just an illusion, it is a grave mistake that will not lead to any peace, but only mark a new, even bloodier stage of the war in Syria,” he said.

“They (the West) have not been able to come up with any proof but are saying at the same time that the red line has been crossed and there can be no delay,” Lavrov said.

He also compared the rhetoric over Syria to that made in the lead up to U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the NATO-led assault on Libya in 2011. “The intimidation campaign has already begun, the events in Iraq ten years ago and in Libya, more recently, began the same way,” Lavrov said. He also called out the hypocritical nature of US foreign policy by adding, “You cannot fight with a regime only because you don’t like the dictator that heads it, and then not fight another regime where you like the authoritarian ruler.”

But Russia, with its well known and highly referenced history of backing the Assad regime against Western powers, is not alone in calling for restraint even as U.N. inspectors finally reached the scene of the alleged gas attack on Monday—though not without incident—to begin their investigation into the available facts.