Dickson Igwe. Photo: supplied

And that ruined country’s murderous ruler, the protagonist of this mass murder, a mafia type figure called Hafez Assad, and his family, will end up paying dearly some day, all things being equal. History points this out.

Crimes against humanity are always a moral outrage. These atrocities against the most vulnerable, especially women and children, are a dagger plunged through the heart of compassionate humanity.

They are a malevolence that takes precedence over any geopolitical consideration and reasoning. And whether it is Alawite against Sunni, Al Quadeda against Hezbollah, or vice versa, even in a bloody sectarian civil war, there are civil and humanitarian considerations and consequences in the Syrian tragedy that cannot be ignored by international society.  

In the age of mass communications, and a ubiquitous social media, war atrocities are even more unacceptable than they were decades back: in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Why? Because unlike a yesteryear, when an Adolf Hitler could exterminate 6 million Jews; or a probably syphilitic European King of the Congo, cut the hands and feet off little children indiscriminately, to ensure the compliance of native populations, and no one but a terrible and complicit inner circle would know, today, such atrocities would have seen the royal murderer most probably brought to justice, and sooner, rather than later. And in any event, how did Hitler end up in 1945? Yes: the Nazis were destroyed, eventually.

In 2013, a holocaust of the type that happened during the Second World War in Europe is certainly feasible- the Rwanda Model- but probably unlikely.

Clearly, one precious gift of cable, the internet, and digital telecommunications, is much greater and immediate knowledge, by the world, of the actions of the bloody tyrant and war criminal.

But moving on, and in a story in ‘’Foreign Policy,’’ an online international affairs news media, of August 26, 2013, titled, THE SUPERVILLAIN SYNDROME,’’ Analyst John Norris stated the following. ‘’ Why would Assad do something so provocative, something so stupid, something so obviously designed to trigger an international response? ’’

The writer, alluding to Assad’s recent gassing of Syrian citizens, asserted that, ‘’- like former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, former Liberian President Charles Taylor, and former Libyan President Muammar al Quadaffi, Assad got so used to poking a great slumbering bear that is the United States, and the international community, without any response, that he assumed he had absolute impunity to do whatever he pleased- .’’

And like all war criminals, Assad, a terrorist, and a murderous Machiavellian dictator, began to ominously believe in his own invincibility. That is where most dictators get it badly wrong.

So after the murder of over a hundred thousand men, women, and children, and probably a further hundred thousand by his family in past years, a war criminal decided to cross the Rubicon. He went on to gas thousands of men, women, and children, in mid to late 2013, like one exterminates rats: in essence a mass culling of Syria’s citizenry.   

What Assad failed to recognize was this: when the conscience of humanity is pricked, all the logical arguments about non intervention usually fly out the window. The critical mass in global public opinion may be against military intervention in Syria for now, but the sight of hundreds of children lying dead and wrapped in white shrouds, slaughtered by a cold blooded psychopath, is always a crime too far. In today’s world there will be repercussions. And this is a simple but real feature of modern international politics and diplomacy.

The foreign policy analyst put it this way, ‘’ Assad’s great miscalculation is in not realizing that at some point the costs of inaction simply outweigh the costs of action for Washington and its allies. It does not serve the United States and its friends well to be seen as feckless in the face of such horrors. It undermines the legitimacy of the international order and makes it more likely that other despots will employ similar tactics.’’

The Op Ed piece asserted that, ‘’ at some point, the cost of inaction carries higher political costs both domestically and politically-. Assad is making a big mistake if he believes that Secretary of State John Kerry, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, all with strong human rights records will simply advise the president to sit on his hands.’’

Then there is another story from the Pentagon. And it is this one: the US intelligence and military establishment is, ‘’ already looking at how to collapse Assad’s entire world around his ears. And when the US decides to act, Russian and Chinese diplomats will still make a lot of noise in public, but even in Beijing and Moscow, they will start to plan for life after Assad.’’ This Observer is not a betting man. But if he were, he wouldn’t put a dime on Assad surviving this horrific and tragic mess.

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