[scottie_m]

As I said in my first post, the evidence for chlorine being added to barrel bombs is strong, and that’s certainly a chemical weapon. I haven’t seen any good evidence of nerve agents used though, which are another class of chemical weapon, and what relates to this blog.

I would also point out that this whole chemical weapons debate is an emotional dog whistle. Somehow we accept dropping 1000lb barrel bombs loaded with shrapnel on civilians, but the addition of chlorine makes it inhumane? Come on, it’s mass slaughter in Syria, and chemicals doing the bulk of the damage are high explosives and incendiaries.

Let’s be honest with ourselves and each other, and accept that we either care about this, or don’t. Don’t buy into narratives that somehow it only matters when gas is involved. The important considerations have to do with the degree of killing (which is huge) and what we feel we can do about it at an acceptable cost (very little). We should be honest about why we’re hysterical about Syria (Russia) and almost totally ignoring Yemen (Saudi Arabia).