As the United States continues to try to build an international coalition, Democracy Now interviewed Jadaliyya Co-Editor, Bassam Haddad, Director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University. The interview includes commentary on the latest developments in the efforts to strike Syria for the regime's alledged use of chemical weapons and the potential consequences. Bassam opposed the grounds on which talk of an impending strike is based, noting the tainted record of the United States foreign policy and illegal actions in the region and emphasizing the grave consequences that might spin out of control. He asserts that ordinary Syrians will continue to be the most affected victims of such a strike.
"The United States in Iraq has actually used nerve agents, mustard gas and/or white phosphorus in Fallujah and beyond, left depleted uranium all over the country in Iraq, ruined and destroyed the lives of generations as a result, and now claims that it needs to do this to protect Syrian civilians — which is exactly the opposite of what will happen in any invasion or any strike on Syria, which is not possible to happen in the surgical manner that is being discussed right now," Haddad says. "You have a regional environment that is also in many ways opposed to this, including of course the allies of Syria in the region, and we have a possibility of this becoming something much more than what many envision."