The siege is an old tactic of war; for educated readers, it is specific to the Medieval Age; besieged cities recall us of these ancient times, when weapons were not so perfect as now.
So, why is siege specific to Syria? From Homs,to Daraya, then Douma, then Aleppo, and now Wadi Barada, the Syrian regime uses this specific and cruel tactic of war: civilians are bombed, but before the shelling they are trapped so they cannot escape.
Keeping civilians in hostage is a war crime, according to the Geneva Conventions, but all international laws are violated, and this is specific, too, of Assad’s tactic.
The indifference of people , in the international community , to the suffering of the besieged and bombed civilians is , too, specific to the Syrian Revolution and Assad’s attempts to keep the power.
Assad has two powerful allies : Iran and Russia, which back its policy ; Russian planes can easily bomb Syrian towns.Three leaders facing besieged civilians , and a world eyes-closed: this is also specific to this present.
The siege is , in our memories, synonym of starvation ; adding to it contemporary weapons is modern, not ancient, like the fist tactic.
But what is specific, what we can never ignore in this Syrian Revolution and the way it is fought, is the use of chemicals in a perfect indifference.
Besieged, they are bombed by napalm , and the opinion , who was in insurrection in the 70th, at the time of the Vietnam War, is looking away…Our closed eyes in front of the ravages of the siege and bombing, our silence, are specific.
Activists of human rights demonstrating in front of the Russian or Iranian embassy do not represent the public opinion, but their own and specific ideas.
And the failure of peace talks and Resolutions of the UN ? Syria is the failure of international conventions; it is, we can say it without exaggeration, the failure of the UN.
Only the UNICEF and the UNOCHA are efficient, because they act on the ground: it is specific to the events we see daily.
A new siege has begun: this of Wadi Barada, a neighbor of Damascus. Now it represents a threat for the capital: Damascus knows lacking of water, cuts, and its supply is counted for two weeks , according to a Statement of the UN in Geneva:
Damascus is the capital: by his tactic of the siege, Assad would use the weapon against his regime? It would be specific(the photo of the header is property of the newspaper “The Guardian”).
For Syrian Revolution , this eventuality would be great.