Assad's forces have been dumping barrel bombs on civilians lately. We don't approve of this particular method of killing civilians, joining chemical weapons in that category:
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington deplored the attacks on civilian areas by Syrian government forces, accusing the military of using barrel bombs and SCUD missiles "indiscriminately."
"The United States condemns the ongoing air assault by Syrian government forces on civilians, including the indiscriminate use of SCUD missiles and barrel bombs in and around Aleppo over the last week," Carney said.
"The attacks over the weekend killed more than 300 people, many of them children. The Syrian government must respect its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population."
Oh, and we don't like Scud ballistic missile strikes, too.
So that's--what?--about 2,000 dead killed by unacceptable means out of 50,000 dead civilians in the war (the balance of the total consists of government and rebel forces).
I guess we can look forward to a new agreement with Russian help to ban barrels in Syria and remove even this method of killing.
Assad must be so confused. He agrees to stop killing people with chemical weapons. Logically, everything else is cool. Heck, even cutting off food doesn't seem to bother people overly much.
And especially with Assad's application to join the coalition of the willing to fight al Qaeda as our ally, Assad has to wonder why we now complain about barrel bombs and Scud missiles?
Well, I sympathize with Assad. It's all pretty confusing to me, too. I have no idea what our government is trying to do in Syria.
It's like we're voting "present" and hoping it all goes away.
