http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/21/one_year_ago_i_was_gassed_by_bashar_al_assad_syria_and_barack_obama_has_done_nothing_to_punish_him
Argument
I Was Gassed by Bashar al-Assad
A year ago, a chemical weapons attack killed hundreds
of my neighbors and friends. But the greatest tragedy is Obama's
refusal to punish the murderer in Damascus.
* BY Qusai Zakarya
* AUGUST 21, 2014
*
*
Every time I see
President Barack Obama speak on television, I have horrible flashbacks. My eyes
are burning, I struggle to breathe, and when I inhale, the air stabs my lungs
like a thousand daggers. A young child lies glassy-eyed in my arms, I load him
into a truck, and then the world turns sideways and goes black.
Then, someone is
shaking me, kissing me, crying over me. Suddenly, the world comes back into
focus, and I see my friend, shouting: "You're alive! You're alive!"
I am a survivor of
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons attacks of Aug. 21, 2013.
One year ago today, my heart stopped for 30 minutes after I inhaled nerve gas
launched by Assad regime forces on my hometown of Moadamiya, a suburb of
Damascus. The scene outside my front porch that morning was like something from
Judgment Day:
Neighbors I had known my whole life were running, screaming, and
writhing in agony as an invisible killer claimed their lives.
Neighbors I had known my whole life were running, screaming, and
writhing in agony as an invisible killer claimed their lives.
Today, a year later, I
remember my dear friends with sadness, knowing that the man who killed them was
spared punishment for the atrocity he committed that day.
But the worst sadness
of my life did not come the day my friends died. It came three weeks later,
while watching a livestream of President Obama. I learned from that
speech that the
United States would make a deal with Russia to rid Syria of its chemical
weapons, instead of striking at Assad for his atrocities. I had to translate
this news into Arabic for my friends -- we cried harder than we had on Aug. 21,
because we knew that Assad now had a green light to kill all the Syrians
he wanted, so long as he did not use sarin gas.
The past year has
played out as I feared. Assad may have relinquished most of his sarin
gas, but he
has also found a new weapon to replace it, which also kills invisibly on a
massive scale. Americans might recognize this weapon because fanatics from the
self-styled "Islamic State" recently used it to kill Yazidis on Mount
Sinjar. That weapon is starvation.
Over the past year,
Assad has killed hundreds of civilians in rebel-held areas across the country by
denying them food, water, or medicine until they succumb to starvation. As with
the Islamic State's pretend "caliph," Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Assad's
only goal with starvation is to inflict unbelievable pain and suffering on
innocents until they assent to his bloody rule.
In my hometown, there
are few extremists. Emissaries from al Qaeda who came to our town to scout for
recruits left Moadamiya after concluding in one day that we were
"apostates." We are locals fighting for democracy in Moadamiya -- and
for this reason, Assad is slowly starving us to death.
I was in Moadamiya until
February, and I saw the full impact of Assad's "starve and surrender"
weapon myself. In October 2012, Assad's forces commenced a total siege on
Moadamiya, blocking all food, medicine, and humanitarian supplies from entering
the town. While we initially found sustenance from a bumper crop of olives, food
began to run out as winter set in, and residents were reduced to eating weeds
and stray animals.
Once more, I held infants in
my arms as they lay glassy-eyed and dying, this time from
malnutrition. Once more, I held infants in
my arms as they lay glassy-eyed and dying, this time from malnutrition. I
consoled parents on the deaths of their young children -- such as my friend Abu
Bilal, who was a grocer before the siege but could not even save his own
daughter during it. Another friend of mine was desperate to get medicine for
his dying daughter, but was caught by regime intelligence. We found him with
his throat slashed and the skin peeled off his entire body.
These are
daily realities for tens of thousands of Syrians. Entire towns are
slowly dying of starvation, and the U.S.-Russian chemical weapons deal
made it possible. I know that the United States can save my friends and family
in Moadamiya, just as it saved the poor Yazidis on Mount Sinjar.
Obama recently
dismissed the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as "former doctors, farmers, [and]
pharmacists," incapable of fighting Assad and the Islamic State at the
same time. I know the FSA fighters in my hometown, and the president couldn't
be more wrong to write them off: Before I blacked out a year ago today, I
watched with my own eyes as they repelled a massive attack by Assad troops in
full chemical gear. The "farmers and pharmacists" of the Free Syrian
Army have defended Moadamiya from everything Assad has thrown at them, and they
deserve America's support.
Last November, I
initiated an indefinite hunger strike to draw attention to the horrific daily
realities in my hometown. The hunger strike garnered international attention,
and Congressman Keith Ellison even fasted for a day in solidarity. But it also
drew the attention of regime authorities, who began to seek ways to
kill me. With
death possibly just around the corner, I entered into "negotiations" with the
regime and managed to trick Ghassan Bilal -- the chief of staff for Maher
al-Assad, Bashar's brother and feared enforcer -- into thinking that I
was ready to work with
him. This allowed me to escape to Lebanon, and from there to Turkey, before I
finally found refuge in the United States.
Since coming to the United
States, I have been shocked at how little citizens of the world's most powerful
nation discuss global affairs. But I have also been pleasantly surprised by
Americans' generosity and love of liberty. I see statues all over Washington
celebrating the American Revolution -- a revolution that could not have
happened without the many farmers and doctors who took up arms. I am confident
that, once Americans realize what is happening in Syria, they will come to the
aid of the Syrian "farmers and pharmacists" who power our revolution
as well.
Obama must realize that
we are fighting for our liberty, and that his inaction while we are being
slaughtered will go down in history as a moral stain on his presidency.
--
Peace Is Doable
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