President Biden calls Vladimir Putin a war criminal. Indeed he is. But if so, why not Syria’s Bashar Assad? Assad’s deliberate attacks on civilians and the full range of their infrastructure — hospitals, homes, parks, streets, schools — matches the deliberate attacks of Putin on Ukraine. Why does Biden stigmatize Putin while Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden let Assad off the hook? Assad launched his criminal attacks on Obama’s watch, continued them on Trump’s watch and now exerts control over his butchered country on Biden’s watch only because of Assad’s omnipresent threat of additional butchery.
What makes Assad different?
Is it because Assad kills Middle Eastern Arabs while Putin kills Westernized Ukrainians? Is it because Syrians are, in a manner of speaking, people of color while Ukrainians are white? Is it because Syrians are Muslims and Ukrainians are Christians?
Is it, perhaps, because Syria borders Israel and Ukraine does not? Is it more tolerable for a war criminal to act with impunity on the border of a Jewish state than against a different kind of state?
Is it because Ukraine borders Europe and is more culturally connected to the US than Syria?
Is it because the West has learned something from the savagery of Assad and ISIS? No, it hasn’t learned. If it were strictly savagery that Biden has responded to, he would not keep pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran.
Even in light of the obvious evidence of dictators doing what they say they will do, Biden sees Iran’s ayatollahs as trustworthy. In fact, they are no better than Putin.
Biden imposes, rightly, admirably and efficiently, crushing sanctions on Russia, yet he is ready to flip the switch on the equally dangerous Iran. Putin says Ukraine is Russia’s. He acts. Iran says it will destroy Israel. Do not help it act via a diplomatic chimera.
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