Syrian weapons of mass destruction

Reports are coming in of signal intelligence from the Syrian military referring to the movement of chemical weapons to storage facilities in the town of Homs. These are distinct from the reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were one of the key triggers for the second Gulf War yet strangely missing on detailed investigation. Now don't get me wrong. Saddam Hussein undoubtedly not only had, but used chemical and biological weapons throughout his dictatorship, particularly against the Kurds in Northern Iraq against whom he committed genocide. The problem is that one of the reasons that we knew that Iraq had such weapons was because the UK, US, Russia and Germany had supplied them, and we still had the receipts. We also knew that he had already used his stockpiles before the invasion. This presents a problem when it comes to the latest reports from Syria.

Once again we have a situation where we know that Syria has biological and chemical weapons facilities because we supplied them, and we know that the Syrian authorities have stockpiles of nerve agents including Sarin gas because two dissident journalists escaped the country and brought photographic evidence with them. The problem is that there is no way that the public are going to believe politicians or the intelligence community as a consequence of previous lies and misinformation. There are additional problems in that there is a strong possibility that military action by the West would result in serious repercussions as the Middle East is considerably less stable and more defensive. There is also the question of the impact any action would have on Israel give the history of the Syrian backing of Palestinian militia units in defence of their homeland against Israeli incursions into the West Bank.

Of course this has nothing to do with the lack of accessible oil in Syria, or the links between the Syrian leadership and the CIA in accessing Iraq and Iran during the 1970's and '80's. As part of the CIA support for Osama Bin Laden during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan training camps were set in in Syria and the Syrian military were supplied with weapons and equipment. In addition it almost certainly isn't related to the continuing weapons contracts for UK, US, Russian and Chinese arms manufacturers or the personal contacts of President Assad and his lovely first lady, and the information that they hold on key Western leaders.

The situation in Syria is escalating daily and there are increasing risks that the West could be drawn into the situation in spite of every effort to remain distanced by the flashpoint area between Syria and Turkey. This could be the biggest crisis to face the West and raises questions that could critically damage the political structure of the Western World and lead to the expansion of the Muslim World in the manner of the Ottoman Empire of the 10^th and 11^th Century. It will be fascinating to see how this situation develops.