The death toll in Syria’s 22-month civil war has topped a staggering 60,000 — far higher than had been suspected.
That’s according to an “exhaustive analysis” undertaken by the UN’s human-rights chief, Navi Pillay.
And even that figure is probably an underestimate, experts say.
What’s ironic is that the number of Bashar al-Assad’s victims is now higher than the number of Arabs, including Palestinians, killed in wars with Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.
But the UN Security Council — which automatically races to condemn Israel every time a West Bank Palestinian gets so much as a hangnail — has remained silent on Syria.
AP
John McCain
To her credit, Pillay castigated the Security Council in her report, saying Assad’s unchecked bloodshed “shames us all.”
Particularly President Obama — who, as Sen. John McCain noted last week, isn’t “leading from behind,” as he did on Libya, but “waiting from behind.”
This, even as the rate of killings has accelerated since July to more than 5,000 a month.
McCain has called on the White House to establish a no-fly zone over part of Syria and to directly arm the anti-Assad rebels.
To no avail.
True, the US and European countries have provided “humanitarian” aid — but experts say 70 percent of that winds up in government hands.
As has happened in so many previous “humanitarian aid” efforts.
Obama says he has a red line in Syria that will prompt strong US action: if Assad uses chemical weapons.
But McCain says he’s been told by Syrians that Assad sees this not as a red line but a green light — “to use all other weapons of war to massacre them with impunity.”
The Syrian body count is an affront. What will it finally take to shame the world into action — starting with Washington?
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Syria’s agony
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