Syrian Civil War Update: The Assad Regime Used Chemical Weapons Again

           A human rights organization has concluded that Syria’s Assad regime has used chemical weapons again.  The Syrian dictatorship allegedly used them several times recently against civilian targets. 

The Obama Administration had previously threatened American military punishment against Syrian for using weapons of mass destruction against its own people during a three-year popular uprising, but agreed to a deal that was brokered by Russia in 2013 for Syria to give up its chemical weapons.  The deal left the Baathist regime of Bashar Assad unpunished, not only for having used chemical weapons, but for indiscriminately using conventional weapons in civilian population centers, and thus, undeterred.  The Administration has not made clear its plans to act on the new information.    

The death toll from the war has reportedly climbed to 160,000.  As I have posted previously, Syria is a terrorist-sponsoring major ally of Iran and has long been a threat to regional peace and stability.  More than a million Syrians have fled their country, which has created an international humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to southern Europe.  The fighting has occasionally spilled over into several neighboring States.  What began as a popular uprising against dictatorship in 2011 has been partially co-opted by Islamists, who have attempted to fill the vacuum left by the international community’s lack of significant support, although non-Islamist Muslims remain at the core of the rebellion.