United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was unequivocal: "Any use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anybody, under any circumstances, would violate international law. Such a crime against humanity should result in serious consequences for the perpetrator. This is a grave challenge to the entire international community — and to our common humanity." He is right. Unfortunately, questions still swirl around the use of chemical weapons in a suburb of Damascus last weekend, with both sides in the bloody civil war accusing the other.
There is an easy solution: The Syrian government should allow U.N. inspectors full access to the battlefield, and ensure that all their questions are answered. That will allow the world to come to an informed and accurate assessment of what happened and punish the transgressors accordingly. And they must be punished.
Chemical agents were dispersed in the early morning hours of Aug. 21 in a rebel-held area outside the Syrian capital of Damascus that had been under a Syrian army siege. The international medical group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that three hospitals received 3,600 patients with neurotoxic symptoms, ranging from pinpoint pupils to convulsions. Atropine, a standard treatment for sarin gas, was used in response. Without fixing blame, MSF concluded that all the evidence "strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent."