The Change of Regimes by the Western World2 min read

There is a history of forceful regime changes by Western countries across the world and within 15 years, we have seen military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya that resulted in the toppling of their governments.

Whether it was the right decision or not is another argument but what they all share is they were not friends of the West but rather obstacles.

You may think those people in power were “evil” leaders that killed their own people and you may be right but what I cannot wrap my mind around is why unverifiable allegations result in illegal interventions.

For instance, the American government accused Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction but did not provide evidence beyond reasonable doubt to the United Nation Security Council.

Nevertheless, without the authorisation of the Security Council, the United States and their allies illegally invaded Iraq and this was the same case as Libya.

The United Nations Security Council imposed a no-flight zone in Libyan aerospace to limit governmental aerial attacks on the opposition during the uprising, but the United States and NATO conducted air strikes without the Security Council authorisation.

The difference is Libya did not receive the same post-war treatment as Iraq and was left to collapse into anarchy.

Recently, Assad’s regime was accused of using chemical weapons in the ongoing Syrian civil war and this is not the first time.

Yet, the timing of the chemical killings is controversial because this happened not long after President Trump announced he will start to pull the American military out of Syria.

Instantly, Western countries accused Assad for the attacks and threatened military action even though the chemical attacks seem illogical for Assad after gaining more territory.

Fortunately for Assad, Russia and Iran are supporting his campaign to restore his rule across Syria so Western countries cannot dispose him like they did with Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

If this was in court, the case against Assad would have been dismissed due to inadmissible evidence.

In closing, the events that are occurring in Syria are indeed tragic but irrational actions could lead to greater consequences, therefore, a bit of healthy scepticism is necessary to analyse the situation.

Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash