We all know about Mr. Trump's reaction a few days ago to the deployment of chemical weapons in Syria.
In his justification for "punitive measures" on April 6th, President Trump paid particular attention to the photographic evidence of chemical weapons use by the al-Assad government. Specifically, he reminded us of the child victims involved.
Haley Gas Victims
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Gas Victims
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Baby Victims
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Fallujah 1
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Fallujah 2
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Fallujah 3
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And the problem extends far beyond Fallujah. Increased cancer rates and astronomical rises in birth defects have been recorded in Mosul, Najaf, Basra, Hawijah, Nineveh, and Baghdad. As documented by Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan, there is "an epidemic of birth defects in Iraq." She writes,
"Sterility, repeated miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects - some never described in any medical books - are weighing heavily on Iraqi families."
Australian anti-war activist, Donna Mulhearn, who has travelled repeatedly to Fallujah, talking with Iraqi doctors as well as affected families, added to the list:
Several highly remarkable aspects of the situation just described immediately present themselves. For one there is the almost total silence of the media about the crimes of the U.S. and U.K. Then there is the lack of outrage (or even awareness?) on the parts of President Trump and U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley.
And what about those members of Congress so concerned about damage and pain to unborn fetuses? (I mean, what we have here in effect is a massive abortion operation by the United States in an entirely illegal war which has already claimed more than a million mostly civilian casualties.)
However, what is most remarkable about the contrast between responses to Syria and Iraq is the continued surprise of "Americans" by reprisal attacks by Muslims, which continue to be identified by our media as irrational and evil "terrorist attacks."
The logic is inescapable. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If the U.S. is outraged by the killing of innocents and feels the need to "punish" the suspected perpetrators, someone else has the right to treat the United States in the same way. (We might not know of the crimes of our government and military, but the whole Arab world knows!)
So we shouldn't be surprised by any "terrorist" attacks that mimic on a comparatively small scale the U.S. response to the killing of the "beautiful little babies" that so concern Mr. Trump.
That's the cost of hypocrisy, double standards, wars of aggression, and the use of outlawed weapons of mass destruction. In war ghastly offensives elicit ghastly counter-offensives.