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Turkey's Opposition Parties Reject Military Strike in Syria

The Turkish political opposition has doubts about whether it was the Syrian regime that used chemical weapons and concern over being pulled into a Middle Eastern quagmire.

Free Syrian Army fighters are seen on a Russian-made helicopter that belonged to the Syrian Army at the Minnig Military Airport, after it was seized by the rebels August 11, 2013. Syrian rebels captured the main military airport near the border with Turkey on August 6, consolidating their hold on a key supply route north of the city of Aleppo, opposition activists said. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT MILITARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX12H8L
Free Syrian Army fighters are seen on a Russian-made helicopter that belonged to the Syrian Army at the Minnig military airport before being seized by the rebels, Aug. 11, 2013. — REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano

While stressing that he has not yet decided on launching a military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, US President Barack Obama said on Aug. 28, “[W]e do have to make sure that when countries break international norms on chemical weapons they are held accountable.” In the meantime, the British government argued that the legal reasoning for a strike on Syria “is justified on humanitarian grounds,” shoveling aside all questions concerning the legality of such an operation in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution.

Whether the strike is inevitable or not, the White House said on Tuesday, Aug. 27, that the mission of such an operation won’t be about ousting Assad.

“I want to make clear that the options that we are considering are not about regime change,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. “They are about responding to a clear violation of international standards that prohibit the use of chemical weapons.”

In this context, should one consider this to mean that those who are trying to justify an outside military intervention in Syria were not equally compelled by more than 100,000 people being killed, according to the latest UN numbers? Would this mean that it is okay to kill under international norms as many as you wish in whatever barbaric, conventional ways possible, but not with chemical weapons? What logic, while building the legal justification on a humanitarian cause!

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