The world is a cruel place and in these times it may be at its cruelest. When we think of our recent past, we tend to think of World War I and World War II as difficult passages for humanity. But we may well be entering upon one of the cruelest at the present time.
Is there a new Holocaust on the way? Maybe not in the planned organised bureaucratic manner of the Nazi regime. But it may happen in different parts of the world through the sheer impotence and neglect of the international community.
Let us focus on the Middle East right now. God knows how many thousands of Palestinians have spent most of their lives in camps of one kind or another. Add to this number the flood of refugees fleeing Syria at the moment. Last year we believe that one million refugees fled to Europe seeking a better life.
This year, things are shaping up to be a lot worse. Just this week we had new Russian air attacks on Syrian MSF hospitals in the rebel-held areas. Turkey is already invading northern Syria by stealth intent on wiping out the Kurdish opposition there.
But what is Russia up to just now? In Geneva there are diplomatic set-piece talks-about-talks going on. A supposed ceasefire that no one intends honouring is being arranged. Meanwhile Russian jets target hospitals. Yesterday, a school and MSF hospital was destroyed in Azaz in Northern Syria. And Assad assures us that he has no intention of engaging in any ceasefire until he has won back the whole of Syria.
A well-informed US military analyst, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a lecturer at the Catholic University of America, has concluded that together Syria and Russia are intent on destroying the Syrian opposition in all its forms, moderate and extreme, without distinction. Once that is achieved they will then turn their guns on ISIS. At that point the United States will be ‘invited’ to join in the fight against ISIS. Cumulative errors in the Middle East have fatally damaged the US capacity to act.
Putin will not tolerate weak versions of Western democracy in Syria or elsewhere. See this New Statesman article here. Chechnya and the Ukraine are the models for Russian interventions. It involves the cynical deployment of overwhelming force with the consent and support of local regimes.
Who are the pawns in this game? They are the millions, yes, millions who will be denied life and basic human rights because of Russian imperial ambitions, American weakness and European lack of courage.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst. Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand;. Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The poor, the weak, the sick, the children will be the fodder for the new holocaust.
ERN Europe Advocacy Action 