World View: France Says There's 'No Doubt' Syria Regime Used Sarin Gas

World View: France Says There's 'No Doubt' Syria Regime Used Sarin Gas

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Hong Kong commemorates the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
  • France says there’s ‘no doubt’ that Syria regime used sarin gas
  • Hezbollah may be planning new war with Israel

Hong Kong commemorates the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre

Iconic photo of 'tank man' - student blocking row of tanks in Tiananmen Square in June, 1989
Iconic photo of ‘tank man’ – student blocking row of tanks in Tiananmen Square in June, 1989

Tuesday is the 24th anniversary of the start of China’s TiananmenSquare massacre. On June 4, 1989, China’s military massacredthousands of unarmed students who were demonstrating peacefully inBeijing’s Tiananmen Square. In China it’s still forbidden to talkabout the massacre, and you can be jailed and tortured for doing so.But in many ways, the Tiananmen Square massacre was a turning pointfor China. It triggered the Falun Gong protest movement in China,which has also been violently suppressed. In Taiwan, it triggered theWild Lily rebellion, which led to the activist movement demandingTaiwan’s nationhood and independence from China. Hong Kong is theonly place in China where it’s still legal to talk about the TiananmenSquare massacre, and on Tuesday, more than 100,000 protesters haveflocked to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 24th anniversary, andto demand freedom from the Beijing government. Telegraph (London)

France says there’s ‘no doubt’ that Syria regime used sarin gas

Empty rhetoric abounded again on Tuesday after France’s foreignminister Laurent Fabius announced on television that the regime ofSyria’s president Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas against theopposition with “no doubt”:

“There is no doubt that it’s the regime and itsaccomplices [are responsible for using sarin gas]. …

All options are on the table. That means either we decide not toreact or we decide to react including by armed actions targetingthe place where the gas is stored.”

The conclusion was reached by lab analysis of soil samples smuggledout of Syria.

Actually, there’s a third option besides deciding to react or decidingnot to react. The third option is not to decide anything, and thatwill undoubtedly be the option taken. President Barack Obama in thepast has said that al-Assad regime use of chemical or biologicalweapons would be “a red line,” and crossing it would draw militaryaction. On Tuesday, the White House said that more proof was needed.France 24 and BBC

Hezbollah may be planning new war with Israel

Syria’s army continues to win battles against the rebels, and therebels are all but defeated in and around Damascus. Debka, whichsometimes gets things wrong and sometimes predicts imminent wars thatdon’t occur, is quoting its military intelligence sources as sayingHezbollah has taken advantage of the Assad regime’s victory aroundDamascus to move militia units equipped with heavy arms and missilestoward the Syrian-Israeli border. According to the report, aHezbollah attack across the border into Israel could be only daysaway. Debka

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