The Seige Of Deraa is Likely the Massacre we Bombed Libya to Avoid

 President Obama made a sensible speech late last month justifying his Administration's Libya policy. At the crux of the issue, the American leader stated that the NATO action in Libya took place not to depose dictator Muommar Qaddafi but instead protect Libyan civilians from a massacre. According to the President, any more inaction would lead Qaddafi to basically raze the center of resistance-- Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi:

"There will be times when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and values are," the President said. "Wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States."

In Libya, Obama said that allowing Khadafy to wipe out Benghazi - which he noted was the size of Charlotte - would have "been a betrayal of who we are."

"As President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action," he said.

President Obama's assertions could have definitely occurred. A power mad dictator whose family has been in charge for 40 years could (and probably would) slaughter civilians to both retain power and punish those that would dare challenge him.

Fast forward to late April.

Deraa, Syria

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's forces are massacring civilians on a larger scale than Qaddafi was last month. His troops are receiving basically open aid from Iranian Revolutionary Guards-- the same people (along with the Basij) that crushed the June 2009 cries for freedom.

And by all accounts, it's becoming a bloodbath.

But residents described the onslaught as collective punishment, and activists cited witness accounts of more tanks and armor being sent south from Damascus. Reached by satellite phone, they said electricity and phone lines had been cut and had still not been restored. Soldiers fired at water tanks atop houses and apartment buildings, emptying them. Snipers took up positions across the town, and checkpoints were set up on many streets.

“No one’s allowed to walk more than 100 meters,” said another resident who fled across the border with his children.

The town’s sole hospital is closed, and residents said they were afraid to take the wounded there anyway because they would probably be arrested. Abdullah Abazid, one of the few residents to give his name, said that 39 people had been killed in the past two days, and that bodies were still strewn in the street.

The siege of Deraa basically is that massacre that Obama stated would happen in Benghazi if Allied forces waited "one more day."

How many more days will he wait in Syria?

Cross-posted at WorldThreats.

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