The World Of Actionable Offenses

Chemical weapons have caused more than one million casualties globally since World War I (by all sides). The Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of chemical weapons in warfare, was signed in 1925. It had many loopholes, including allowing member countries to use them against nonmember countries who had chemical weapons stockpiled. Currently, 189 nations, representing about 98% of the global population, have joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC): to verify the destruction of chemical weapons; to prevent their re-emergence in any member State; and to provide protection and assistance against chemical weapons.

In recent days we saw a concerted effort to gather support for a military act of retaliation, due to use of chemical weapons by a regime (who isn't a member State of the CWC) against its own citizens. More than one country has voted against military reprisals due to the possible ramifications of getting involved in a complicated civil war.

Action was not considered because innocent people, including children, were killed. It was because a weapon that was banned in most of the world was used.

Ask a humanitarian agency for options and you will get humanitarian probabilities. Ask a military force for a solution and they will give you a military solution. Truth is, killing to avenge killing in any situation has never accomplished anything but more dead bodies and fuel for a bigger fire.

Any act of violence, any crime against citizenry by their governing bodies or opposing factions is reprehensible. And those who would arm, finance or supply these civil wars are also culpable. Imagine bombing without bombs, shooting civilians without ammunition...

In a proactive world perhaps peaceful, multinational action could have been taken long before atrocities were committed, before certain weapons were used and before military action is promoted to be the only viable action.

Then maybe, this would be more of a love story.