A COMMENT ON THE SYRIAN SITUATION + NY TIMES DISCUSSION

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/middleeast/john-kerry-syria.html?hp



  I notice a furious all around debate yet feel entirely frustrated for lack of immediate details and historical context, e.g, 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/164272259/U-S-Government-Assessment-of-the-Syrian-Government’s-Use-of-Chemical-Weapons-on-August-21-2013?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=a610d7e3a5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-a610d7e3a5-398411721
and
David Rief's piece in the New Republic that references a lot of them
http://click.newrepublic.com/email/v1/click?v=3&e=f18dQhb0S65M1PNfs.VLZBZ683KP7VW2pJbqy6BL9F2W87hR1Q3QJ5HJW1mCkMb8JZdFnW4NY.tv8NQrh3W7vJmpp6p8SJVW59yJW_8mPD0bW3Q79T_3n_bzCW40N27T7SQlRBVnfRSP32D9ygW1mkrTt1yYyWBW6CFgD83nqtmzW8vqdSR1k4k7rW65dsG_1W6nDrN5W3VFmZl5NCW4Q9cWT2p5Y5TW6fJDQw5v0dtLW8_Vjjt7JNz3cW3g_GKW4tbQBvW5gj9JR8FSczXW6MwlLy4d0.7nW4P.5SG15sTs8102It It appears that the U.S, has been trying to destabilize the Syrian government since the days of G.W. Bush's Iraq adventure.
 So this then is what you get!
Syria had a Ba'ath type socialist government although it appears not as perverted as Saddam Hussein's became. Bashar al-Assad, a trained ophamologist, suceeded his father Hafez upon that man's death in 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad
Whatever I read, pro or con intervention, of whatever degree, however agrees, in the highest moral dudgeon, that the Assads are the equivalent of "old badass Saddam" - as compared to the somewhat differentiating reportage of the ongoing ground conflict (s) of the insurgency - its various foreign backers and components, Islamist and Alawite, Shiite and Sunni factions.

Does a government have the right to defend itself against an insurgency? Especially insurgencies sponsored by various foreign interests that wish the country  to disintegrate?

Now specifics. It is said that the Obama government has electronic evidence of an Assad defense minister who is upset at the carnage wrought by the poison gas attack. Who recorded or overheard this conversation, where when, quite aside the interpretation of the evidence. According to Leon Wieseltier in the New Republic Dexter Filkins of the New York Times has evidence of 35 different poison gas attacks on the part of the Assad regime.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114488/leon-wieseltier-chemical-weapons-syria?utm_campaign=topic-email&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=10139816
What if any reason does the Assad regime have to target a neighbourhood, that neighborhood
in Damascus? Was / is this an opposition hotbed? And if not, was this event an accident
as the overheard conversation might lead one to believe?
Another point: is Assad's Ba'ath regime so entirely evil that in fact there needs to be regime change with all the consequences of regional spread of warfare that such a decision entails?