“Sanctions Against Syria Will Help, Not Harm, Civilians”
“The Caesar Act is an overdue effort to starve the Assad regime of the resources that fuel its atrocities.”
“In person, Caesar is calm and speaks patiently. When he fled Syria, where he served as a military photographer, he brought with him 55,000 images of the burned, strangled, and whipped corpses that President Bashar al-Assad’s interrogators dispatched to the morgue.”
“On June 17, almost six years after Caesar’s first public remarks in front of congressional leaders, the sanctions legislation that bears his name took effect after passing late last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The sanctions passed with firm backing from the White House and vocal support from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.”
“U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Caesar sanctions into law last December”.
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“U.S. Sanctions Are Killing Innocent Syrians”
“The Caesar Act isn’t hurting Assad; it’s harming civilians.”
“Regime change has not worked in Syria. The West’s grievances with Assad should not result in collective punishment of an entire nation.”
“More than half a million Syrians have died since 2011. Some 13 million people—more than half the country’s prewar population—have been displaced. Many are heading toward Europe, and unless sanctions are lifted soon, many more will become refugees in the West. They have nothing to lose in their voyage across the Mediterranean. And they will carry their anger with them.”
“Britain, France, and Germany have all renewed their sanctions rather than realize that sanctions do not work. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, former Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, and Castro were not removed by sanctions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran hasn’t been toppled either. This is the definition of insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein: “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.””
“Can U.S. President Joe Biden, U.S. Congress, and European leaders sleep at night while an entire people die of hunger, oppression, and marginalization just because politicians want to be seen as doing something tough to oppose the Syrian government?”
Read more: Sanctions Against Syria Will Help, Not Harm, Civilians (archived) (2020) and U.S. Sanctions Are Killing Innocent Syrians (archived) (2021)
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