Syrian rebels have taken iconoclasm to new depths, with shrines, statues and even a tree destroyed – but to what end?

Robert Fisk: Syrian rebels have taken iconoclasm to new depths, with shrines, statues and even a tree destroyed – but to what end? – Comment – Voices – The Independent.

While #Assad embarks on a wholesale destruction of our cultural heritage by bombing places like Old Damascus, Old Aleppo and Old Homs, Al-Qaeda adopts a more piecemeal approach, destroying our heritage one statue at a time, garnering more public attention and generating more publicity in the process, so that the likes of Fisk can use it to smear and defame the entire rebel movement.

The death of Dr Abbas Khan shows how Syria’s President Assad shares power with ruthless and erratic henchmen

The death of Dr Abbas Khan shows how Syria’s President Assad shares power with ruthless and erratic henchmen – The Independent.

At this stage, #Assad won’t give a second thought to killing the Queen, not just a doctor, because he has created a mess in which no Western country would contemplate intervening. The moment Obama backed down on the strike, Syria was effectively given to the wolves.

Re-legitimating Assad

Re-legitimating the Assad regime today, after all it had done, will green light genocidal ventures elsewhere in the world. If world leaders are standing helpless in the face of one genocide today, what will they, I wonder, when they are faced with a dozen? The world witnessed similar conditions during the Cold War for sure, but this is supposed to be the post-Cold War Era, the Era of Never Again and R2P, an era where social media is creating deep links between average citizens and realities on the ground everywhere in the world. Allowing for a return of Cold-War-like realities and developments, or, to be more specific, allowing for the start of Cold War II, is a major step backward. It’s a major setback, a major failure, and it will come with a hefty price tag for all.