Aleppo’s horrors suggest the west is now impotent when confronted by savagery
To complete the infamies of 2016, now comes Bashar al-Assad’s impending victory in Aleppo – today’s Guernica, even if there is no Picasso to depict it. Events in Syria define the arrival of a new barbarism. Even in the most terrible days of 20th-century conflict, combatants would respect minimum rules. Civilians were not surrogates for the enemy. Organisations such as the Red Cross – independently and impartially alleviating suffering on either side on the basis of no other value than human need – were allowed to do their work.
No more. Aleppo completes a new, dark contemporary arc that trashes respect for humanitarian principles that once seemed inviolable.… Seguir leyendo »